test
Search publications, data, projects and authors

Thesis

French

ID: <

10670/1.vcwehn

>

Where these data come from
The Poet and the Prince : colours of the Praise and the Blame in the Abbasid Era (750 - 965)

Abstract

Based on one of the richest periods in the history of Islam in terms of poetic creativity and production, our project seeks to revise the forms that characterized the relationship between the poet and the prince. To elucidate this relationship as complex as it is protean, we will call on a rich and varied corpus, and then examine the question of praise and blame through three prisms: rhetoric, ethics and politics. The encomiastic discourse uses rhetoric to gain an audience’s support for a matter that is not yet established. But the effort required by the orator to convince the audience necessitates the ethical backdrop and common system of values, from which he proceeds to persuade. As for the political dimension, it is reflected in the poet’s function as the “verbal arm” serving the prince and as an instrument legitimizing his political position against real or potential opponents. Beyond the function of official panegyrist, the performativity of political discourse also extends to speech, education, reform, even open criticism that could evoke the antique parrêsia. By virtue of its sapiential substance, poetry contributes to the process forming the politician and offers him an excellent manual to government. As for the dissenting vein, invective, caricature and the mobilization of polemical speech constitute his main resources. The dissenting vein passes through the poet’s gaze on the universe of the court, the prince’s politics and the relationship between governor/governed. Whether it involves nominations, political projects or the very ethos of the man of power, the poet is always present to give his opinion. The injustice of a decision made by a judge, the nepotism of a governor or the harshness of a general are all aspects that demonstrate the poet’s vivacious criticism of power, and the role that the latter assumes as the moralizer of this sphere. The counsel is then presented as a means to rectify the prince’s general decisions or orientations and attests to the existence of a veritable poetic rationality. Furthermore, the rhetoric of praise and blame indicates the existence of a poetic rationality that reached maturity in the Abbasid period and attained an unprecedented degree of oratory efficiency, due to the poet’s growing consciousness of the necessity to be involved in political life and to influence the course of history.

Your Feedback

Please give us your feedback and help us make GoTriple better.
Fill in our satisfaction questionnaire and tell us what you like about GoTriple!