In the Shade of the Golden Palace

Thibaut d'Hubert successfully expands the traditional academic paradigms of approaching Middle Bengali literature by attempting to critically construct the seventeenth century Arakanese poet-laureate ?l?ol's poetics through an intricate philological interpretation of his stylistically complex and contextually pervasive body of works.

Auteur
Thibaut d'Hubert is an assistant professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.

Texte du rabat

In the Shade of the Golden Palace explores the work of the prolific Bengali poet Alaol (fl. 1651-71), who translated five narrative poems and one versified treatise from medieval Hindi and Persian into Bengali. This book is a unique guide for readers of Middle Bengali poetry, a detailed study of the cultural history of the frontier region of Arakan, and an original contribution to the poetics of South Asian literatures.

Contenu

• Acknowledgements

• Map of Arakan and eastern South Asia in the seventeenth century

• Introduction: Poetics in the margins

• Chapter 1: The formation of Bengali literature in Arakan (ca. 1430-1638)

• Chapter 2: Literary urbanity in Mrauk U

• Chapter 3: New beginnings: l ol's early career in Mrauk U

• Chapter 4 l ol's poetry and Mrauk U's political turmoil

• Chapter 5: l ol's poetics: when locality rhymes with originality

• Chapter 6: Indo-Afghan historical imaginaries and the romance genre

• Chapter 7: Lyric poetry and desi aesthetics in eastern South Asia

• Conclusion: Middle Bengali poetics and the multilingual literary history of Bengal

• Bibliography

• Appendix 1: Summaries of l ol's Padmavati and the story of the goldsmith's wife

• a. Summary of l ol's Padmavati

• b. The story of the goldsmith's wife in Sayphulmuluk Badiujjamal

• Appendix 2: Analytical tables of l ol's songs

• Appendix 3: Original texts of the Middle Bengali and Old Maithili songs

• Appendix 4: A Persian appraisal of l ol's life and works

• Index