at Google ScholarTitle data
Vierke, Clarissa:
“Born on the Island” : Situating Ustadh Mau’s Poetic Practice in Context.
In: Raia, Annachiara ; Vierke, Clarissa
(ed.):
In This Fragile World : Swahili Poetry of Commitment by Ustadh Mahmoud Mau. -
Leiden
: Brill
,
2023
. - pp. 41-68
. - (Islam in Africa
; 25
)
ISBN 978-90-04-52571-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004525726_005
Abstract in another language
The chapter “Born on the Island: Situating Ustadh Mau’s Poetry in the Context” by Clarissa Vierke characterizes the relation between Ustadh Mau and Lamu, in three ways: Firstly, it is the context his poetry reacts to: Ustadh Mau writes his poetry particularly to guide his community facing more and more social, political and economic challenges and tensions in the present. Secondly, it shows how Lamu’s intellectual tradition of writing poetry as a way to reach wider Muslim audiences, largely shaped by the Sufi brotherhood of the Alawiyya, has made an impact on him—as it had also done on his grandfather and father. His family history and his own biography are much entangled with the local Sufi tradition as well as wider Indian Ocean links, as the chapter shows. However, as the contribution underlines, his poetic practice does not merely emphasize continuity with a great poetic tradition, Ustadh Mau has also developed his own critical, modernist stance, significantly diverting from previous ideals. Thirdly, the chapter zooms in on Ustadh Mau’s poetics putting an emphasis on Lamu as a poetic locus, which does not only provide him with topics to write on and an audience to speak to, but also addresses his senses and gives him the imagery, characters, the rhythm and a sensitive language to write with. It is the figurative language, as the chapter argues drawing on Blumenberg’s exploration of metaphorical language as part of intellectual history, that is deeply linked with the poem’s capacity to captivate its audience, but also to produce its own kind of reflection.
Further data
| Item Type: | Article in a book |
|---|---|
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Institutions of the University: | Faculties > Faculty of Languages and Literature > Professor Literatures in African Languages > Professor Literatures in African Languages - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Clarissa Vierke |
| Result of work at the UBT: | Yes |
| DDC Subjects: | 400 Language > 490 Other languages 800 Literature > 800 Literature, rhetoric, criticism 800 Literature > 890 Other literatures |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2024 09:02 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jul 2024 09:07 |
| URI: | https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/90056 |