Devotional Poetics and the Indian Sublime

Vijay Mishra is Professor of English Literature at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of The Gothic Sublime, also published by SUNY Press, and (with Bob Hodge) Dark Side of the Dream: Australian Literature and the Postcolonial Mind.

• Preface A Note on Transliteration 1. The Sublime Object of Devotion 2. Two Truths Are Told: Prologues to the Swelling Act 3. Devotional Poetics 4. Temples of Fire: Plurality-with-Unity 5. Desiring Selves, Undesirable Worlds Conclusion: The Devotional Sublime Notes Select Bibliography Index

"Devotional Poetics and the Indian Sublime continues, in fruitful ways, the recent extension of comparative literature beyond the narrow regional boundaries of Europe and North America. Mishra takes up an extremely important strain in pre-colonial Indian literature, which is unfortunately little known outside Indology. His thoughtful analyses should be read by any serious comparatist interested in devotional poetry." — Patrick Colm Hogan, coeditor of Literary India: Comparative Studies in Aesthetics, Colonialism, and Culture"The book offers a highly original interpretation of one fundamental problem in Indian cultural history: how does a devotee establish a relationship with God (Brahman) when God is ultimately incapable of representation? Mishra brilliantly exposes this problem by introducing the theme of the sublime and shows how the problem has been confronted across a range of central Hindu texts covering a large panorama of historical time and several Indic languages. By a highly judicious combination of both European and Sanskrit poetic theory he opens up new interpretive possibilities—especially about the problem of the representation of the ineffable—in several genres of Indic texts." — Greg Bailey, La Trobe University, Australia"Mix together Western literary critics such as Stanley Fish, Jacques Derrida, and even Dr. Johnson with classical rasa theorists; philosophers of the sublime such as Longinus and Kant with Shankara, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Bhagavata Purana; modern scholars such as Madeleine Biardeau, Louis Dumont, M. Dhavamony, and D. D. Kosambi with Alberuni; and, throughout, a large roster of religious poets including John Donne, Jayadeva, Namdev, and especially Kabir; and you have one of the most original and thought-provoking discussions of bhakti literature and religion so far written. Mishra's comparisons are bold, apt, and fun." — David N. Lorenzen, author of Praises to a Formless God: Nirguni Texts from North India