AUTHOR : Mehr Afshan Farooqi

GENRE :POETRY

QUICK TAKE: An evocative highly anticipated biography of Mirza Ghalib, the last great poet of the Mughal era

SYNOPSIS:

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib was born in Agra in the closing years of
the eighteenth century A precocious child, he began composing verses
at an early age and gained recognition while he was still very young He
wrote in both Urdu and Persian and was also a great prose stylist He was a
careful, even strict, editor of his work who took to publishing long before his
peers His predilection for writing difficult, obscure poetry peppered with
complex metaphors produced a unique commentarial tradition that did not
extend beyond his work Commentaries on his current Urdu divan have
produced a field of critical writing that eventually lead to the crafting of a
critical lens with which to view the classical ghazal
The nineteenth century was the height of European colonialism British
colonialism in India produced definitive changes in the ways literature was
produced, circulated and consumed Ghalib responded to the cultural challenge
with a far sightedness that was commendable His imagination sought
engagement with a wider community of readers His deliberate switch to
composing in Persian shows that he wanted his works to reach beyond
political boundaries and linguistic barriers Ghalib's poetic trajectory begins
from Urdu, then moves to composing almost entirely in Persian and finally
swings back to Urdu It is nearly as complex as his poetry However, his poetic
output in Persian is far more than what he wrote in Urdu More important is
that he gave precedence to Persian over Urdu Ghalib's voice presents us with
a double bind, a linguistic paradox Exploring his life, works and philosophy,
this authoritative critical biography of Ghalib opens a window to many shades
of India and the subcontinent's cultural and literary tradition

AUTHOR :

Mehr Afshan Farooqi grew up in Allahabad, India A multiple gold medalist
from Allahabad University, Farooqi is currently associate professor of Urdu
and South Asian Literature at the University of Virginia Her research
publications address complex issues of Urdu literary culture particularly in the
context of modernity She is interested in bilingualism and how it impacts
creativity.

PRE-ORDER: Book will be released ~ 11th January

BINDING : Hardcover

PAGES: 416

Ghalib : A Wilderness at My Doorstep - Mehr Afshan Farooqi