Same Tropes, Different Meanings: A Study on the Poetic Aesthetic of Khusrau, Ghalib and Faiz

Juveriya Khan

Juveriya Khan Delhi University, Keshav Mahavidyalaya

Keywords: Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ghalib, Amir Khusrau, Ghazal, Urdu Poetry, Urdu poetry english literature, comparative literature

Abstract

The study attempts to gain an understanding of the aesthetics of Amir Khusrau, Ghalib, and Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Urdu-Persian ghazals in the context of their socio-political backgrounds and to outline a brief history of the literary culture through a metaphorical analysis. To analyze modern Urdu literature, critics often divide poets into the categories of progressive writers who support “adab barā-e adab” (literature for literature’s sake) and modernist writers who favor “adab barā-e zindagī” (literature for life’s sake). However, this dichotomy gained popularity only in the 1930s and 40s. Through an analysis of the works of three poets who belonged to different centuries and are regarded as some of the most celebrated Urdu-Persian poets in the present time, the study seeks to attain knowledge about the quintessential features of their poems and the development of political undertones in the traditional ghazal universe. It also attempts to draw a comparison between their works by tracing the history of the same resemblance-based metaphors used in their poems.

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Author Biography

Juveriya Khan, Delhi University, Keshav Mahavidyalaya

Juveriya Khan is a Psychology (Honours) student at Keshav Mahavidyalaya, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. Her research interests fall in the domain of Psychology in Literature, Clinical and Social-Personality Psychology.

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