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Podcast: New Books in Literary Studies
Episode: Daniel Behar, "Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)
Description: Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity (Edinburgh UP, 2025) examines a poetic movement that rose from under official state discourse in 1970s Syria
Closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up a new poetics which challenges received ideas about modern Arabic poetry
Rereads along transnational lines the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ
Offers a substantial rethinking of key terms in comparative literary studies — translation, translatability, vernacular —as seen through the lens of everyday poetics
Describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses th...