Memories of an Impossible Future: Mehdi Akhavān Sāles and the Poetics of Time: Mehdi Akhavān Sāles and the Poetics of Time

In 'Memories of an Impossible Future: Mehdi Akhavan Sales and the Poetics of Time' Marie Huber traces the quest for a modern language of poetry through different figurations of temporality in the works of one of Iran's foremost poets. Akhavan is placed in dialogue with European thinkers and emerges as an original voice in world literature. Chapters examine aspects of rhythm and metaphor, messianism and historicity, and functions of time in Akhavan's lyric and epic poems. Through a range of close readings Huber seeks to understand Akhavan's texts as crystallisations of a historical moment, both rooted in the Persian tradition and pointing beyond it. Her analyses combine attention to philological detail with meditations on the philosophical significance of Akhavan's poetics In Memories of an Impossible Future: Mehdi Akhavān Sāles and the Poetics of Time Marie Huber traces the quest for a modern language of poetry through different figurations of temporality in the works of one of Iran's foremost poets. Akhavān is placed in dialogue with European thinkers and emerges as an original voice in world literature. Chapters examine aspects of rhythm and metaphor, messianism and historicity, and functions of time in Akhavān's lyric and epic poems. Through a range of close readings Huber seeks to understand Akhavān's texts as crystallisations of a historical moment, both rooted in the Persian tradition and pointing beyond it. Her analyses combine attention to philological detail with meditations on the philosophical significance of Akhavān's poetics. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 An Emancipation of Rhythm Isochronies of Night The Immanence of Perception Metrical Spaces Embodied Rhythm Measures of Seeing Time and Song Chapter 2 Images of the New The Screen of Nature Porous Images Objective and Subjective Realities The Two Mirrors Chapter 3 Time-Spaces of Poetic Narration The Most Intimate Relation Dream Time Syncopations of Desire The Immobilised Now Embedded in Time Unmappable Spaces and Spaces of Myth Chapter 4 The Depth of Time: Voices The Broken Cogito La parole scindée The End of the Book of Kings Bibliography Index