Urdu Literary Culture: Vernacular Modernity in the Writing of Muhammad Hasan Askari [Hardcover]

Urdu Literary Culture examines the impact of political circumstances on vernacular (Urdu) literary culture through an in-depth study of the writings of Muhammad Hasan Askari, who lived during the Partition of India.Quot Rami Tot Arbores: The University of Allahabad and Beyond  Askari and Firaq: Queer Relations in Life and Literature  Fiction, Theory of Fiction, and the Critical View Jhalkiyan: World Literature, Partition, and Rupture  The Illusion of Form and the Power of Tradition  Revisiting the Indo-Muslim Consciousness  Conclusion: Reopening the Past; Bright Morning and Foggy Night

'The strikingly original literary theorist Muhammad Hasan Askari, who began as an avant-garde Europhile and ended as a strictly Islamic Sufi, occupies a particularly contentious place in Urdu literary culture, and remains almost entirely unknown outside it. Farooqi sets out to 'enter into Askari's complicated life' so that she can 'better understand his sensibility.' In this project she succeeds excellently. Her thoughtful work is full of new information about Askari and his literary and political worlds, and also suggests some fruitful directions for further study. It deserves to be on the bookshelf of anyone who is interested in Urdu literary history or the postcolonial intellectual history of South Asia.' - Frances W. Pritchett, Professor of Modern Indic Languages, Columbia University

'Farooqi thoughtfully examines the life and work of Muhammad Hasan Askari, arguably the foremost critic in the world of mid-twentieth century Urdu letters. Farooqi shares with us her excitement for this world, which included movements of aesthetic innovation, leftist literary progressivism, and renewed Islamic identity. She shows us how Askari achieved insights into all these movements, but from his own perspective one grounded in the classical Urdu literary heritage but informed both by Western literary critical thought. lƒ(