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Article: Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion.
- Article from:
- The Journal of the American Oriental Society
- Article date:
- July 1, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 American Oriental Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Norman Cutler's book takes its title not so much from Blake's series of poems, with which the Tamil works he treats have little in common, as from his contention that the Tamil Saiva and Vaisnava hymns involve an "experience" (or enjoyment, as he suggests on page 43) of God by both the poet and the poet's audience. As he says (p. 13), just as savoring a rasa is the poetic goal of the audience of Sanskrit drama, experiencing God through poetry is the goal for the Tamil devotee. Throughout the book, he works out the consequences of this view,
often with considerable and striking insight.
The book is in two main sections. The first is commentary and ...