This book argues that a renewed consideration of artistic value should both critique contemporary bureaucratic misunderstandings of what art is and address the complexities and questions of contemporary philosophers in new and provocative ways. Writer and poet Ali Alizadeh focusses on the artistic theories of the key Western philosopher of value, Karl Marx. He explores Marx's thoughts on art and literature and provides a new account of his revolutionary view of why we make art and how we understand art's value. By returning to Marx's writings, from his juvenile poetry and earliest journalism to his final publications, Alizadeh proposes a theory which not only challenges many tenets of contemporary Marxist literary or cultural theory, but one which also presents us with a profound, coherent and stimulating theory of art that defines, values and demonstrates artistic practice. By mapping Marx's intellectual development from the ideals of a young Hegelian to the polemics of a seasoned internationalist communist he shows that Marx never lost sight of art as a key aspect of human activity.

This book argues that a renewed consideration of artistic value should both critique contemporary bureaucratic misunderstandings of what art is and address the complexities and questions of contemporary philosophers in new and provocative ways. Writer and poet Ali Alizadeh focusses on the artistic theories of the key Western philosopher of value, Karl Marx. He explores Marx's thoughts on art and literature and provides a new account of his revolutionary view of why we make art and how we understand art's value. By returning to Marx's writings, from his juvenile poetry and earliest journalism to his final publications, Alizadeh proposes a theory which not only challenges many tenets of contemporary Marxist literary or cultural theory, but one which also presents us with a profound, coherent and stimulating theory of art that defines, values and demonstrates artistic practice. By mapping Marx's intellectual development from the ideals of a young Hegelian to the polemics of a seasoned internationalist communist he shows that Marx never lost sight of art as a key aspect of human activity.

The great 13th century Sufi poet Farid al-Din Attar is renowned as an author of superb short lyrics written in the Persian language. Dealing with themes of love, passion and mysticism, the versions presented in this book are the first sustained offerings of Attar s lyric poetry in English. Award-winning Iranian-born poet, Ali Alizadeh, and Persian specialist, Kenneth Avery, have collaborated on this project which aims to bring this remarkably vigorous yet subtle poetry to an English reading audience. The translations are accompanied by the Persian texts themselves, and explanatory notes, and are set in the context of his life and times by an illuminating introductory chapter. An original analysis of Attar s poetic language and thought is also offered. Attar, who lived in Nishapur until his death in 1220, was a complex personality, a brilliant storyteller and poet in both lyric and epic forms, and a creative and original Sufi thinker. His ideas range over the whole spectrum of Persian mysticism and religious philosophy, and his writing paved the way for the triumphs of Rumi and Hafiz. His ideas and exquisite verse deserve a wider circulation than has been accorded them until now, and this book seeks to present his poetry in an attractive way.

Edited and translated by the internationally renowned poet John Kinsella and the Iranian-born poet and translator Ali Alizadeh, Six Vowels and Twenty-three Consonants is a groundbreaking new collection of poems presenting the wealth of poetic voices from one of the world's most important literary cultures. The book covers poetry from the early Middle Ages to the Modernists and Postmodernists of the 20th and 21st centuries. No other culture in the world has produced such quantity and quality of mystical poetry and true spiritual vision as the Persian tradition. In this poetry there is an effulgence of meaning; nearly every word resonates with chords of allusion and multiple signification. Whether we read a modern poet or one of the classics, this resonance reaches back to the beginnings of the tradition, and it touches us today.