In this fourth volume of the landmark "Poems for
the Millennium" series, Pierre Joris and Habib Tengour
present a comprehensive anthology of the written and
oral literatures of the Maghreb, the region of North
Africa that spans the modern nation states of Libya,
Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania, and including
a section on the influential Arabo-Berber and Jewish
literary culture of Al-Andalus, which flourished in
Spain between the ninth and fifteenth centuries.
Beginning with the earliest pictograms and rock drawings
and ending with the work of the current generation of
post-independence and diasporic writers, this volume
takes in a range of cultures and voices, including
Berber, Phoenician, Jewish, Roman, Vandal, Arab,
Ottoman, and French. Though concentrating on oral and
written poetry and narratives, the book also draws on
historical and geographical treatises, philosophical and
esoteric traditions, song lyrics, and current prose
experiments. These selections are arranged in five
chronological "diwans" or chapters, which are
interrupted by a series of "books" that supply extra
detail, giving context or covering specific cultural
areas in concentrated fashion. The selections are
contextualized by a general introduction that situates
the importance of this little-known culture area and
individual commentaries for nearly each author.
|
|