The Book:
This volume presents select studies of Prof. Gopi Chand Narang on Urdu literature, both classical and contemporary. It runs through the full gamut by touching upon various phases of the development of Urdu as a composite cultural expression of the people in the subcontinent and as one of the most popular vehicles of our national freedom struggle.
The studies range from the Ghazal, the Masnavi, Sufism, Sauda and Ghalib to the twentieth century poets, Iqbal, Faiz and Firaq. The volume also carries a substantial section on Urdu fiction and includes Professor Narang’s seminal study on the metaphorical and mythical roots of the art of Rajinder Singh Bedi.
The book should be of great interest to earnest explorers of Urdu language as well as literature.
The Author:
Gopi Chand Narang (b. 1931), Professor of Urdu at the University of Delhi, is an eminent scholar, critic and linguist. His main interests are literature and linguistic studies, classical Urdu literature and modern Urdu poetry and fiction. Gopi Chand Narang has done much to modernise literary criticism in Urdu through the application of stylistics and structuralism. He has published more than 30 books.
He has delivered special lectures at the Universities of London, Prague, Toronto, Montreal, California, Chicago, Cornell, Columbia, Arizona and Philadelphia. His formidable scholarship and forceful presentation make his studies a memorable feast for the cognoscenti. Professor Narang was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1990. He is the recipient of many awards including the President of Pakistan’s Special Gold Medal (1978), the Ghalib Award (1985), the Khusrau Award (1987), and the Delhi Urdu Academy Award (1991).
