Deviation, defect, and libidinal inclination are seldom conceived in morally neutral terms. Most Arabic expressions for these depend on some verb of bending or leaning—postures that are undefinable without reference to straightness and uprightness. The feminist critique of rectitude in Adriana Cavarero's Inclinations (2014) cannot fail to resonate with devotees of Arabic language science, and in this talk it is applied to the poetry of Jamil ibn Ma‘mar al-‘Udhri, better known as Jamil Buthaynah, the first great love poet of the Arabs.

Speaker
David Larsen (Senior Research Fellow, Library of Arabic Literature) is a US poet and translator, and Clinical Associate Professor of Liberal Studies at NYU. His translation of Ibn Khālawayh’s Names of the Lion received the 2018 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets.

Moderated by
Chip Rossetti (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is the Editorial Director of the Library of Arabic Literature. He has translated a number of Arabic literary texts, including Beirut, Beirut by Sonallah Ibrahim and No Windmills in Basra by Diaa Jubaili.

In Person (NYUAD Campus) and on Zoom

The seminar is open to the NYUAD community and by invitation. Please register below.