Re-orienting modernism : mapping east-east exchanges between Arabic and Persian poetry

Abstract EN

This article argues for a new direction in comparative literary studies by analyzing close formal and thematic links between Arabic and Persian modernist poetry.

It re-maps the history of modernist poetic development between the two Eastern traditions and advocates for a broader re-orientation of modernist studies.

The article highlights foundational modernist innovations that occurred beyond the reach of Western influence, including the retention of several elements of premodern poetic forms based in the Arabic prosodic tradition.

This includes the continued presence of the Arabic metrical foot (taf‘īlah) in both Arabic and Persian modernist poetry during the early decades of their growth