A Political History of Literature by Pankaj Jha

A Political History of Literature by Pankaj Jha

This book studies the fifteenth-century north India through an intimate exploration of three compositions of the poet-scholar, Vidyapati: a Sanskrit treatise on writing, a celebratory biography in Apabhramsa, and a collection of mytho-historical tales in Sanskrit. An intimate linguistic, literary, and historical study of these texts reveals a world that is marked by a range of ideas, expertise, literary tropes, ethical regimes and historical consciousness drawn eclectically from sources that we are used to thinking of as belonging to 'diverse' politico-cultural traditions. Vidyapati laced these ideas with contemporary flavour, classicizing impulse and useable forms. He was not alone in doing so. As the book shows, many of the ideals extolled in fifteenth-century literary cultures appear to be those more appropriate for ambitious and expansive political formations associated with an imperial state. That such a state was to emerge only a century later is probably a testimony to the fact that ideas incubate and get actualized in realpolitik only in the long duration.

Pankaj Jha teaches history in Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi. The primary area of his research interest is literary cultures of the middle ages. The languages he has worked with include Persian, Sanskrit, Maithili, and Apabhramsa. His research articles, in Hindi as well as in English, in peer-reviewed journals have been widely acclaimed in scholarly circles. He is also on the Editorial Board of the international journal Indian Economic and Social History Review.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780199489558
ISBN 10	0199489556
Title	A Political History of Literature
Author	Pankaj Jha
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	OUP India
Year published	2019-01-17
Number of pages	272
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.