Embracing Simultaneity: The Story of "Ślesa" in South Asia

• Authors: Bronner Yigal
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This essay deals with literary works that combine two or more topics, characters, or plotlines and convey them concurrently to their respective destinations. It is based on my monograph Extreme Poetry: The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration (Bronner 2010), where I discuss this phenomenon at length. Here I will limit myself briefly to presenting three main points: that the dimensions of the śleṣa phenomenon in South Asia are enormous, that experiments with artistic simultaneity have a demonstrable and meaningful history, and that this is the history of a self-conscious literary movement. I conclude with three brief examples of ślesa verses from three very different works that exemplify some of the poetic uses to which śleṣa was put and that demonstrate how the literary movement under discussion used śleṣa to advance the aesthetic projects of South Asian culture and push them to the extreme.

Keywords

EN

ślesa; polysemy; simultaneity; Kavirāja; Subandhu; Nītivarman; Dandin; Jagaddhara Bhatta; Māgha; Śrīharsa.

• Publisher: Księgarnia Akademicka
• Journal: Cracow Indological Studies
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 15: Text History and Society as Depicted in Indian Literature and Art. Part II. ŚRAVYA. Poetry & Prose
• Pages: 119-141

Contributors

author

Bronner Yigal

• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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Identifiers

DOI

10.12797/CIS.15.2013.15.08