Maintaining the Pure Ghazal, Part Two

This post is more general than the previous one, but it does bear on the adaptation of the ghazal form to English.

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall distinguishes between "high-context" and "low-context" cultures. This useful distinction points out that in some cultures, the high-context ones, people share a great deal of information — stories, beliefs, values, historical lore, cuisine, and so on, and in other, low-context cultures, people share very little information.

Poets in a high-context culture can assume that readers share a large amount of information; in a low-context culture, poets tend to write for smaller groups of similar experience and education. An oblique reference can convey a great deal to many people in a high-context culture. In a low-context culture, readers may well need explanatory notes.

While high-context cultures still exist, many of us live in low-context cultures, as anyone who has taught literature to American college students can attest. The ghazal originated, of course, in high-context cultures. Now, it is migrated to a low-context culture. I hope essays and book reviews on The Ghazal Page as well as the ghazals. and posts on this blog will help provide some context. Dedicated poets and readers will need to pursue more sources, of course. My own grasp of the context certainly needs development.

The question I want to end with: How does living in a low-context culture affect one's work with the ghazal form?