The Reader in Al-Jahiz: The Epistolary Rhetoric of an Arabic Prose Master

ISBN-13: 9780748692743 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 288 str.

Thomas Hefter

Opis

Explores the intricately crafted rhetorical strategies used by al-Jahiz in his letters
The 9th-century essayist, theologian and encyclopedist 'Amr b. Bahr al-Jahiz has long been acknowledged as a master of early Arabic prose writing. Many of his most engaging writings were clearly intended for a broad readership but were presented as letters to individuals. Despite the importance and quantity of these letters, surprisingly little academic notice has been paid to them.
Now, Thomas Hefter takes a new approach in interpreting some of al-Jahiz's 'epistolary monographs'. By focusing on the varying ways in which he wrote to the addressee, Hefter shows how al-Jahiz shaped his conversations on the page in order to guide (or manipulate) his actual readers and encourage them to engage with his complex materials.

Spis treści

Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. The Addressee and the Occasion of Writing; 2. Epistolary Confrontations and Dialectics of Parody; 3. Undisclosed Origins and Homelands; 4. Faulting Misers in the Introduction of Kit?b al-Bukhal??; 5. Passive Addressee and Critical Reader in the Ab? al-???/Ibn al-Taw?am Debate; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.