Muhammad Iqbal’s Romanticism of Power
A Post-Structural Approach to His Persian Lyrical Poetry
By (author) Stephan Popp
A study of the Persian poetry of Muḥammad Iqbāl (1877-1938), today Pakistan’s national poet, this work identifies the position his poems occupied between tradition and modernity, specifying the appeal they held for his contemporaries. Drawing on structural text analysis, the aesthetics of reception, and the semiotics of Umberto Eco, the study undertakes to demonstrate that the message in Payām-i Mashriq (Message from the East) and Zabūr-i ͑Ajam (Persian Psalms) is romantic. An adaptation of national romanticism, Iqbāl’s version may be called a pan-Islamic romanticism of power and so very distinct from a nature-inspired romanticism. The traditional forms utilized for the poems are revealed to be mere tools for rendering this message plausible. Employing traditional rhetorical devices to convey a thoroughly modern content, Iqbāl succeeded in establishing a bridge for the Muslims of India to connect into the discourses of pan-Islam and self-governance, thus motivating them to join India’s independence movement.<br/>
English Summary: This book is a research on the Persian poetry of Muhammad Iqbal, whom Pakistan chose as its national poet. It specifies the position of these poems between tradition and modernity as well as the appeal of these poems to Iqbal’s contemporaries. Based on structural text analysis, aesthetics of reception and the semiotics of Umberto Eco, it proves that the message of the poems in Message of the East and Persian Psalms is clearly romantic. This romanticism is an adaption of national romanticism and can be named a pan-islamic romanticism of power as opposed to nature romanticism. The traditional forms of the poems turn out to be mere tools to render this message plausible. Using traditional rhetorics in order to convey a thoroughly modern content, Iqbal succeeded in attaching the muslims of India to the discourses of panislamism and self-governance and in motivating them for joining India’s independence movement. German Description: Dieses Buch untersucht die Position der persischen Lyrik des pakistanischen Nationaldichters Muhammad Iqbal zwischen Tradition und Moderne und versucht, die Wirkungsweise dieser Gedichte darzustellen. Es legt auf der Basis von strukturalistischer Textanalyse, Rezeptionsasthetik und Umberto Ecos Semiotik dar, dass die Botschaft der beiden Gedichtbande Botschaft des Ostens und Persischer Psalter sehr eindeutig nationalromantisch (genauer umma-romantisch) ist und die traditionellen Formen nur dazu dienen, diese Botschaft dem indisch-islamischen Leser plausibel zu machen. Mit dieser Poesie hat Iqbal die Muslime Indiens an die Diskurse des Panislamismus und der Selbstbestimmung angeschlossen und sie zur Mitarbeit an der Unabhangigkeit Indiens motiviert.
- By (author) Stephan Popp
“In conclusion, (...) this study can be considered as an experimental attempt to let the ‘‘post-romantic’’ Persian writings of Iqbal speak primarily for themselves. The book, in other words, operates first of all as a committed reading-guide for a significant part of the Lahori poet’s literary production, and ideally (if not methodologically) finds its place among a well-established tradition of European studies on Iqbal represented especially by an older generation of orientalists (and ‘‘Iqbal-enthusiasts’’), such as the Italian Alessandro Bausani (strangely enough, not mentioned in the bibliography) and especially the above-mentioned German Annemarie Schimmel.”<br/><br/>Stefano Pello<br/><br/>In: Middle Eastern Literatures. Vol. 15 (2012) No. 1. pp. 93-96.<br/><a target="_blank" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1475262X.2012.657396">http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1475262X.2012.657396</a><br/>(24. April 2013)
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