DEEWAN: AN ATHENAEUM FOR URDLU POETRY

Abstract

Urdu poetry has played a significant role in the evolution of our society since its birth in the Mughal era. It became an intimate form of communication and later became the the chief vehicle for the public and private literary expression of an elite society facing major political and cultural challenges. This tradition carried itself forward for a long period as poets and writers became a part of the influential sources for the creation of Pakistan and continued to help the growth of our people for the fisrt few decades. However, over the course of time our people have developed an indifference towards it; Urdu still serves as our national language and has a strong hold over our communication but the way it was celebrated in the past is now lacking and requires rejuvenation. The intent of this thesis is to facilitate the growth and communication of Urdu poetry to the general public in order to restore their connectivity to their own culture. The aim is to understand the association of traditional values with Urdu poetry and to create an association of the present era through the exploration of new mediums of communicating it and deriving spaces guided by those mediums. The focus does not lie in the imitation of its existence in the past rather it lies in grasping the essence of the subject as it lives in the present along with the inevitable changes brought by time. The scope of the project consists is to design an athenaeum with programs varying from intimate to interactive levels. The intent is to create a communal complex that utilizes different modes of expression along with books through which poetry can be communicated like mushairas, qawalis, discourse and visual arts.