Guru Nanak's Transcendent Aesthetics

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-1-009-56253-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 300 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 640 g

One of the foremost exponents of the Sikh religion and of related Punjabi literature offers here a sustained exploration of the aesthetics of Sikhism's founder, understood as 'a symbiosis of his prophetic revelation, his poetic genius, and his pragmatic philosophy – embedded in his visceral expression of the transcendent One.' Drawing on a wide range of sources, Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh examines in full all the beauty, intimacy, and inclusive richness of Guru Nanak's remarkable literary art. Her subject's verses – written in simple vernacular Punjabi – are seen creatively to subvert conventional linguistic models while also inspiring social, psychological, environmental, and political change. These radical lyrics are now brought into fascinating conversation with contemporary artists, poets, and philosophers. Moving beyond conventional religious discourses and spaces of worship in its attempt to sketch a multisensory, publicly oriented reception of Sikh sacred verse, this expansive book opens up striking new imaginaries for 21st-century global society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Singh, Nikky-Guninder Kaur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; Introduction Guru Nanak's transcendent aesthetics: setting the stage; 1. Aesthetic stairway: the Japuji; 2. Aesthetic repertoire & literary appetizers; 3. Aesthetic designs in the language of love; 4. Aesthetic agents: the sensuous quintet; 5. Aesthetic revealer: poet-songster-jeweller; Conclusion: aesthetic praxis; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Singh, Nikky-Guninder Kaur
Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh is Crawford Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. A celebrated authority on Sikhism and Sikh Studies, she has received numerous awards for her previous publications and scholarship. Recent books by Professor Singh include Poems from the Sikh Sacred Tradition (Murty Classical Library of India, Harvard University Press, 2023), Janamsakhi: Paintings of Guru Nanak in Early Sikh Art (Roli Books, 2023), and The First Sikh: The Life and Legacy of Guru Nanak (Penguin Random House India, 2019). Her earlier and groundbreaking study The Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent (also published by Cambridge University Press) appeared in the 'Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions' monograph series in 1993.