India as Theory
Allusion, Poetics, Storytelling, and Translation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22126196 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Whitney Cox (0000-0003-4706-0169), W D G Cox (University of Chicago), Sunil Sharma (0000-0001-6006-8240, Boston University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 143-161 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History of Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2379-3163 • E-ISSN: 2379-3171 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/729080 |
| OpenAlex | W4399280766 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
This collaborative essay considers how India’s multiple, time-deep, and sophisticated literary cultures can contribute to a canon of global literary theory. Reconstructing premodern Indian literary theories of allusion and translation, we seek to bring new voices into the global discussion. The first part explores a theory of allusion in conversation with a work of Sanskrit literary theory, Ruyyaka’s Treasure of Ornaments. In the second part, the focus is on retellings of stories in the premodern Persianate world. The device of the frame story, as found in collections of animal fables like the Sanskrit Pañcatantra and the Perso-Islamic Kalila wa Dimna and in the racy tales in the Śukasaptati (Sanskrit) and Tutinama (Persian), was accompanied by one or more translator’s prefaces. These instances are viewed as examples of “metalepsis,” highlighting the self-referential structure of narrative and demarcating the boundary between the worlds of the narrator and story
Allusion · Art · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Poetics · Poetry · Storytelling · Classical Studies and Philology · Indian History and Philosophy · Philosophy · Translation Studies and Practices
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |