The paper is divided into four parts. In the first part (§ 1) I present a short introduction to the scribal tradition of lexical lists in ancient Mesopotamia. Some methodological comments follow (§ 2). The main part of my paper is devoted... more
The paper is divided into four parts. In the first part (§ 1) I present a short introduction to the scribal tradition of lexical lists in ancient Mesopotamia. Some methodological comments follow (§ 2). The main part of my paper is devoted to lists of different kinds which are embedded in Akkadian literary compositions. I discuss simple lists or CATALOGUES, CHAIN-LIKE lists, and a special kind of enumeration which I call a COMPLEX CHAIN (§§ 3–6). In Classical rhetoric the terms relevant to our discussion are Enumeratio, and Gradatio, and to some extent also Accumulatio. A discussion of the complex relationship between enumeration and oral literature serves as a summary (§ 7). I finish my paper with notes on two modern poets, Jorge Luis Borges (§ 8) and Ted Hughes (§ 9), whose reliance on enumeration to a great extent reflects its usage in ancient literature thus reveal the enduring applicability of enumeration as a literary device.
Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq (1805/1806–1887), one of the most important Arab intellectuals in the nineteenth-century, published his masterpiece Al-Sāq ʿalā al-sāq fī mā huwa al-Fāriyāq (Leg Over Leg or The Turtle in the Tree, Concerning the... more
Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq (1805/1806–1887), one of the most important Arab intellectuals in the nineteenth-century, published his masterpiece Al-Sāq ʿalā al-sāq fī mā huwa al-Fāriyāq (Leg Over Leg or The Turtle in the Tree, Concerning the Fāriyāq, What Manner of Creature Might He Be) in 1855 in Paris. This landmark of modern Arabic literature confronts the reader with numerous word lists.
From the perspective of Literary and Cultural Studies, this book approaches al-Shidyāq’s lists as a fundamental social and cultural critique of his time. It develops a set of analytical tools to describe the epistemic and aesthetic dimensions of ‘exposing words’, and to make sense of the plentiful word lists found throughout Arabic literature and unveil their social and cultural relevance. In the framework of the ‘return to philology’ (Edward Said), the book discovers in al-Shidyāq’s language thinking an intellectual radicalism and artistic experimentation, which sheds new light on the Nahḍa, the Arab renewal movement on the eve of modernity
This article discusses the performative function of enumeration in Arabic prose. Bringing together a great variety of word lists from classical to modern prose (including the 1001 Nights, al-Tawḥīdī, al-Suyūṭī, al-Shidyāq, and Darwīsh),... more
This article discusses the performative function of enumeration in Arabic prose. Bringing together a great variety of word lists from classical to modern prose (including the 1001 Nights, al-Tawḥīdī, al-Suyūṭī, al-Shidyāq, and Darwīsh), it unveils their often neglected importance to literature by drawing from an emerging scholarship on enumeration. Focusing on “enumerative games” (Mainberger), the article does not ask what the enumerated elements mean, but how the act of enumerating produces meaning. In the first part, the article discusses elements central to the poetics of the enumerative (including items, length, arrangement, and frame). In the second part it deals with the politics of enumeration in the example of al-Shidyāq’s al-Sāq ʿalā al-sāq fī mā huwa al-Fāriyāq (1855). The article seeks to provide a basic approach to enumeration and argues that enumerative games in literature perform acts of cultural politics.
