Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature

The Inescapable Nation

By (author) Lama Jabb

Publication date:

10 June 2015

Length of book:

288 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498503334

This is the first book-length study to appear in English on the literary, cultural and political roots of modern Tibetan literature. While existing scholarship on modern Tibetan writing takes the 1980s as its point of “birth” and presents this period as marking a “rupture” with traditional forms of literature, this book goes beyond such an interpretation by foregrounding instead the persistence of Tibet’s artistic past and oral traditions in the literary creativity of the present. While acknowledging the innovative features of modern Tibetan literary creation, it draws attention to the hitherto neglected aspects of continuity within the new. This study explores the endurance of genres, styles, concepts, techniques, symbolisms, and idioms derived from Tibet’s rich and diverse oral art forms and textual traditions. It reveals how Tibetan kāvya poetics, the mgur genre, life-writing, the Gesar epic and other modes of oral and literary compositions are referenced and adapted in novel ways within modern Tibetan poetry and fiction. It also brings to prominence the complex and fertile interplay between orality and the Tibetan literary text. Embracing a multidisciplinary approach drawing on theoretical insights in western literary theory and criticism, political studies, sociology, and anthropology, this research shows that, alongside literary and oral continuities, the Tibetan nation proves to be an inevitable attribute of modern Tibetan literature.

Chapter 1: The Persistence of the Past in Modern Tibetan Literature
Chapter 2: Singing the Nation: Modern Tibetan Music and National Identity
Chapter 3: The Tibetan Tradition of Social Criticism and Modern Tibetan Literature
Chapter 4: Narration of Cultural Traumas in Modern Tibetan Poetry and Fiction
Chapter 5: The Third Generation of Tibetan Poets and the Inescapable Nation
Chapter 6: How Novel Is Contemporary Tibetan Erotic Poetry?
Chapter 7: Conclusion: Whirlpools of Continuity and Creativity

The journey that this work takes one on is extremely rewarding. This is an absorbing and illuminating read. It is composed in a style that should appeal both to the academic community and a wider audience. For anyone with a specific interest in modern Tibetan literature this is essential reading. Equally, it can be recommended to anyone wishing to learn about contemporary Tibetan culture, and even the traditional literary heritage of Tibet.