Reconsidering Qur'anic Genre

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-46
Author(s):  
Adam Flowers
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Interpretative Framework

The Qur'an's employment of diverse modes of discourse is, perhaps, the text's defining literary feature. These discourses, ranging from apocalyptic, to narrative, to legal, have long been observed by Western scholars. Genre studies of the Qur'an, however, have largely stagnated, and little progress has been made beyond cursory classifications. This stagnation is particularly stunting to the study of the textual history of the Qur'an, as vital questions concerning the development of individual genres and the relationship between Qur'anic genre and the unit of the sura remain unanswered. This article marks a first attempt at formulating a literary framework for approaching Qur'anic genre. It will synthesise existing conceptions of Qur'anic genre into a common interpretative framework: individual Qur'anic genres exist as thematically and syntactically demarcated literary units. The article will then propose a novel, literary approach that utilises a comparative thematic and syntactic structural analysis of the Qur'an text to uncover the original, communicated pieces of Qur'anic revelation from the Prophet to an audience in time, or ‘Qur'anic utterances'. This literary analysis is applied to Sūrat Āl ʿImrān and will demonstrate that it is constructed of 34 individual utterances and nine distinct literary genres.

The Aristocracy in England and Tuscany, 1000 - 1250

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Coss
Keyword(s):  
Time Frame ◽  
Grand Narrative ◽  
English History ◽  
Internal Dynamics ◽  
Italian Experience ◽  
English Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
External Stimuli ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Interpretative Framework

Part I of this book is an in-depth examination of the characteristics of the Tuscan aristocracy across the first two and a half centuries of the second millennium, as studied by Italian historians and others working within the Italian tradition: their origins, interests, strategies for survival and exercise of power; the structure and the several levels of aristocracy and how these interrelated; the internal dynamics and perceptions that governed aristocratic life; and the relationship to non-aristocratic sectors of society. It will look at how aristocratic society changed across this period and how far changes were internally generated as opposed to responses from external stimuli. The relationship between the aristocracy and public authority will also be examined. Part II of the book deals with England. The aim here is not a comparative study but to bring insights drawn from Tuscan history and Tuscan historiography into play in understanding the evolution of English society from around the year 1000 to around 1250. This part of the book draws on the breadth of English historiography but is also guided by the Italian experience. The book challenges the interpretative framework within which much English history of this period tends to be written—that is to say the grand narrative which revolves around Magna Carta and English exceptionalism—and seeks to avoid dangers of teleology, of idealism, and of essentialism. By offering a study of the aristocracy across a wide time-frame and with themes drawn from Italian historiography, I hope to obviate these tendencies and to appreciate the aristocracy firmly within its own contexts.

The Story of the Samaritan and the Innkeeper (Luke 10:30-35): A Study in Character Rehabilitation

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Longenecker
Keyword(s):  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Good Samaritan ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reign Of God ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Interpretative Framework

AbstractThe aphorism 'context is everything' has been a guiding principle in many studies of Jesus' parabolic sayings. This is true, for instance, of studies attempting to recover a parable's significance in relation to the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, or in relation to its literary placement and function, or in relation to its polyvalent potential. It is also true of this study, which examines Jesus' narrative of the Samaritan—usually referred to as the 'parable of the good Samaritan'. It suggests that, when the Samaritan story is placed within a certain contextual configuration, its narrative features align themselves in ways that have either been conspicuously neglected or consciously avoided in the history of the story's interpretation. Rather than neglecting or avoiding the significance of these narrative features, this essay seeks to exploit their interpretative significance in a fresh manner, entertaining possibilities of meaning beyond the Lukan interpretative framework. In particular, consideration is given to the relationship between the Samaritan and the innkeeper as representing an exceptional partnership that testifies to the reign of God in making each party vulnerable to loss while promoting goodness towards others.

Qur'an and History – a Disputed Relationship. Some Reflections on Qur'anic History and History in the Qur'an

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelika Neuwirth
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
Textual History ◽  
Circular Argument ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between Qur'an and history is disputed in more than one respect. The Qur'an as a canonical scripture locates itself beyond history. In most current critical scholarship the pre-canonical Qur'an – regarded as no longer reconstructable – is equally discarded. There have been some attempts, however, to restore to the Qur'an a textual history. 28 years after Günter Lüling, Cristoph Luxenberg has renewed the hypothesis of a linguistically and spiritually Syriac–Christian imprinted pre-canonical text. Luxenberg's reading with its far-reaching conclusions has – though in itself little convincing since largely relying on circular argument – revived the debate about the role of Syriac, as the most vigorous linguistic medium in the transmission of knowledge in Near Eastern late Antiquity, in the emergence of the Qur'an. The present paper advocates a search for historical evidence in the text itself trying to show that the complex relationship between Qur'an and history cannot be tackled appropriately without a micro-structural reading of the Qur'an itself. The history of the Qur'an does not start with canonisation but is inherent in the text itself, where not only contents but also form and structure can be read as traces of a historical process.

Historical Analysis and Structural Monitoring Cases – Studies for an Integrated Approach

2010 ◽  
Vol 133-134 ◽  
pp. 247-252
Author(s):  
Laura Balboni ◽  
Paolo Corradini ◽  
Davide Del Curto ◽  
Luca Valisi
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Structural Behaviour ◽  
The North ◽  
Single Structure ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

The paper focuses on the structural analysis of monumental buildings, particularly upon the relationship between both instrumental measurements and the preliminary studies and the general comprehension of the construction history of each single building, including e.g. the historical evolution, materials, decay. A couple of case – study in the north of Italy are presented: the Trostburg Castle in South Tyrol and the S. Agata Church in Brescia. In these cases, cracks have been controlled by a long - time monitoring to investigate if structural damages could be influenced by the construction of underground galleries just near their foundations. The study focuses on the structural analysis of monumental buildings, particularly upon the relationship between both instrumental measurements and the preliminary studies and the general comprehension of the construction history of each single building, including e.g. the historical evolution, materials, decay. Collected data are discussed in comparison with the different approaches related to the knowledge of buildings, in order to evaluate limits and possibilities of proposed methods. Results underline how a deep investigation of an ancient and complex building, usually made up by a long time process of transformations and stratifications, allows to better understand the general structural behaviour. The strong comprehension of the constructive history of each single structure and a carefully discussed cracks board can provide a wider support to plan and make the diagnostic and structural investigation, e.g. this method helps in the choice of the type of tests and instrumentation to be employed and helps to localise where measurements should be taken, empowering the effectiveness of the results. Moreover, it allows to control and to understand results.

Formalism and Phenomenology in Vasily Sesemann’s Aesthetics

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Dalius Jonkus
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Poetic Image ◽  
History Of Art ◽  
The World ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Aesthetic Structure ◽  
The Relationship

The purpose of this article is to analyze the connection between formalism and phenomenology in Vasily Sesemann’s aesthetics. In the articles “Aesthetic valuation in the history of art” (1922), “The nature of poetic image” (1925), “Art and culture” (1927), Seseman discusses the formalist concept of art. However, the most complete critique of the formalist idea of art is revealed in his Aesthetics (1970). In this book, he presented the most comprehensive conception of aesthetic structure. In this paper, I set out first to analyze the most important features of the formalist history of art, and then to explore how Sesemann transforms the concept of artistic form into a conception of aesthetic structure. I argue that formalistic analysis of art transforms the concept of artistic form into a style. This style is nothing less than the experience of being in the world. Sesemann abandons the dualistic separation of sensory material and intelligible form, and instead offers the concept of aesthetic structure. He reveals the relationship between the sensory structure of an aesthetic object and the perceiving subject. Aesthetic value can be revealed as meaningful only with the participation of a subject and with the necessary contemplative attitude. Analysis of art must cover not only individual structures of the object, but also a phenomenological analysis of perception. The combination of formalism and phenomenology is a peculiar characteristic of Sesemann’s aesthetics. The structural analysis reveals a systematic coherence among the artistic creator, work of art, and its perceiver.

Misplaced Officials

Antichthon ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 70-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. C. Weaver
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Municipal Level

For the history of the Roman administration in the early Imperial period we would seem to be well placed. There is an abundance of data on officials at all levels, their functions, careers, families, status and power – and from sources of every kind, literary, epigraphic, juridical, papyrological and archaeological. We know of hundreds, even thousands of such officials. The time would therefore seem ripe for not only a comprehensive descriptive account of the Imperial administration but also for a structural analysis of the system itself, the relationship to one another of the main institutional elements that constituted it: the emperor, the senatorial and equestrian hierarchy, the Imperial freedman and slave officials, and the interaction of all these with administration at municipal level. But a prime requirement for such an account and analysis is the assurance that we can organize the data and place the officials in the right chronological order. A reliable chronology is essential if we are to trace institutional change in the medium and short term. In this regard the Imperial freedman and slave officials are of major importance. In training and experience they make up the professional ‘civil service’ of the early empire – as contrasted with the relatively ‘amateur’ administrative role played by senatorial legati and equestrian procuratores, whose more spasmodic careers were more susceptible to influences of patronage. But it is precisely in the careers of the Imperial freedmen and slaves that chronological problems are most acute and caution most necessary, partly because of the numbers involved and partly in the interpretation of nomenclature.

Greek Thought, Modern Arabic Culture: Classical Receptions since the Nahḍa

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 291-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter E. Pormann
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Short Account ◽  
Greek Thought ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Textual History ◽  
Lyrical Poetry ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Arabic

This article surveys the growing, yet largely understudied field of classical receptions in the modern Arab world, with a specific focus on Egypt and the Levant. After giving a short account of the state of the field and reviewing a small number of previous studies, the article discusses how classical studies as a discipline fared in Egypt; and how this discipline informed modern debates about religous identity, and notably views on the textual history of the Qurʾān. It then turns to three literary genres, epic poetry, drama, and lyrical poetry, and explores the reception of classical literature and myth in each of them. It concludes with an appeal to study this reception phenomenon on a much broader scale.

Genre Practice in Literary Historiography: A Romanian Case

Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 45-51
Author(s):  
Ana Țăranu
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Genre Theory ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Literary Historiography ◽  
Genre Criticism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Romanian Literature ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Relationship

Premised on the pervasiveness of generic categories within literary historiography, the present analysis attempts to delineate the generic idioms present within three histories of Romanian literature (authored by G. Călinescu, Nicolae Manolescu and Mihai Iovănel, respectively). Engaging a descriptively historical, rather than theoretical, approach to genre and its metadiscourses, the paper begins with an abridged version of the cardinal disputes of genre criticism. Subsequently, it comparatively addresses the presence of genre within the three volumes, aiming to locate them within recognizable frameworks of genericity and to establish the overlapping territories of their generic landscapes. Thus, it distinguishes G. Călinescu as a practitioner of post-Romantic genre theory, further showcasing how some of his central aestheticist positions survive in Nicolae Manolescu’s moderately formalist account of the issue. Against the backdrop of their more conservative, teleological historiographical projects, Mihai Iovănel’s 2021 Istoria Literaturii Române Contemporane 1990-2020 [The History of Contemporary Romanian Literature 1990-2020] displays a distinct methodological apparatus, predicated on the author’s rejection of the paradigmatic autonomy of the aesthetic. His employment of materialist theories of art is corelative to a conception of genre as a contingent, empirically determined instrument of analysis, which, far from being a rhetorically stable, abstract category, actively mediates the relationship between social and aesthetic history. This shift engenders substantial amendments to the physiognomy of literary history as genre, enabling it to encompass extra-literary (and noncanonical) phenomena. Keywords: literary genres, literary history, Romanian literature, Mihai Iovănel.

The Text of the Pauline Corpus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Single Letter ◽  
Fixed Sequence ◽  
Textual Tradition ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Synergistic Relationship

The relationship between the text and form of a Pauline letter as sent to its recipients (a single letter hand-written on a scroll or in a notebook) and as read today (edited, printed, and part of a defined corpus with a fixed sequence) is complex and only partially understood. This chapter surveys the witnesses to the text of the Pauline letters, discusses the classification and characterization of the letters’ textual tradition, and notes the methodological implications of the tradition’s textual characteristics. It also discusses the formation of various collections of those letters, because the textual history of the letters is inseparable from the history of their collection, a subject which in turn must be linked to theories regarding their origins and transmission, inasmuch as there is a synergistic relationship between ideas about the creation, transmission, collection, and text of the Pauline letters.

Coda

2021 ◽  
pp. 183-188
Author(s):  
Arden Hegele
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Health Humanities ◽  
Literary Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Free Indirect Style ◽  
The Relationship

The coda extends the relationship between nineteenth-century techniques of medico-literary exegesis to reading practices in the present day. The four mobile protocols discussed in the book—dissective reading, the postmortem, free indirect style, and semiological diagnostics—offer a new portrait of the cultural interchange between Romantic literary and medical fields. They also set the stage for contemporary reading practices, especially symptomatic reading. The coda argues that the much-maligned practice of symptomatic reading might be rehabilitated through a reconsideration of the history of its origins in Romantic protocols of diagnosis, which anticipate present-day debates in literary analysis about the ethics of critique. In dialogue with the medical and health humanities, the coda offers an optimistic reconsideration of symptomatic reading as a rich, transhistorical instance of how literary scholarship might draw on and inform the medical sciences.

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