The Word in the World: Essays and Lectures on Indian Literature and Aesthetics [Paperback]

The Word in the World is a collection of essays and lectures by H S Shivaprakash, a well-known poet, playwright, and translator. Edited by Kamalakar Bhat, this book brings together Prof Shivaprakashs interventions in the realm of issues that are entwined with the continuities and discontinuities in the cultural negotiations of India. Distinctively, these are essays on subjects ranging from the nature and significance of medieval works of literature in India to issues arising out of developments in Indian aesthetics. The unfeigned magnitude of this work must be found among students and scholars, who will gain from it a perspective significantly different from the ones available in the prevailing academic discourses, thus indicating a way beyond poststructuralist/postmodernist frameworks.

This is a book that will interest a wide variety of readers with its engaging insights and breadth of reference especially because it is written in a comprehensible style.

Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Acknowledgements

Preface

Foreword

Introduction

The Bhakti World

1 Transmutations of Desire and Power in Bhakti Expressions

2 Bhakti Poetics: An Example from Kannada Vachanas

3 Transformations of the Hero in Medieval Indian Literatures

4 The Poetics and Aesthetics of Labour

5 Fight for Symbols in the History of Religions in Medieval South India: The Karnataka Example

6 Dasimiah - The Divine Weaver

7 Journeying to Kalyana

8 From Temple to Body-temple: Kannada transformations of Tamil Shaivism

9 What Were You Before I Knew Myself? - Notes on De-creation and Recreation ofls›