This 1966 book provides a series of concise, accessible essays reflecting on the development of Persian fiction during the modern period. The structure of the text is broadly chronological, with chapters allocated to key authors, literary movements, and social changes. This is a valuable volume for anyone interested in Persian literature.
Originally published in 1966, this book forms the companion volume to A Modern Persian Prose Reader (Cambridge, 1968). It provides a series of concise, accessible essays reflecting on the development of Persian fiction during the modern period. The structure of the text is broadly chronological, with chapters allocated to key authors, literary movements, and social changes. A long second section is devoted to the work of Sadeq Hidayat (1903-1951), regarded by many as Iran's foremost writer of prose fiction and short stories. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in Persian literature.
Persian Literature and Modernity recasts the history of modern literature in Iran by elucidating the bonds between the classical tradition and modernity and exploring textual, generic and discursive formations through heterodoxical investigations. This is first done through the rehabilitation of concepts embedded in tradition, including the munāzirah (debate), Ahrīman (the demonic), tajarrud (radical aloneness) and nāriz̤āyatī (discontent). Following this are broader structural and processual treatments, including the emergence of the genre of the social novel, the international dimension of Persian and Persianate canon formation, and the development of salvage ethnography and anthropological discourse in Iran. Covering literary experiments from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries, the chapters in this volume make a case for stepping outside the bounds of orthodox literary scholarship in Iranian studies with its associated political and orientalist determinants in order to provide a more nuanced conception of literary modernity in Iran. Offering an alternative reading of modernity in Persian literature, this book is an invaluable resource for scholars and students interested in the history of modern Iran and Persian Literature.
CONTRIBUTORS -- INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER 1: A MEDIEVAL NEXUS: LOCATING ENSHA' AND ITS ONTOLOGY IN THE PERSIANATE INTELLECTUAL TRADITION, 1000?1500 (Colin Mitchell) CHAPTER 2: ADVICE LITERATURE (Louise Marlow) -- CHAPTER 3: RES℗LE, MAQ℗LE, AND KET℗B: AN OVERVIEW OF PERSIAN EXPOSITORY AND ANALYTICAL PROSE (Ali Gheissari) -- CHAPTER 4: SCIENCE IN PERSIAN (Ziva Vesel in collaboration with Sonja Brentjes) -- CHAPTER 5: CALLIGRAPHY (Francis Richard) -- CHAPTER 6: CONSIDERATIONS ON LITERARY ASPECTS OF PERSIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY (Bert Fragner) -- CHAPTER 7: BIOGRAPHICAL WRITING: TADHKERE AND MAN℗QEB (Paul Losensky) -- CHAPTER 8: STORIES AND TALES: ENTERTAINMENT AS LITERATURE (Mehran Afshari) -- CHAPTER 9: POPULAR ANECDOTES AND SATIRE (Mehran Afshari) -- CHAPTER 10: THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PERSIAN PROSE: FROM THE NINETEENTH TO THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY (Iraj Parsinejad) -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INDEX.
The eleventh volume in this ground-breaking series pays special attention to politically engaged poetry, written during a turbulent period which saw the Constitutional Revolution in Iran as well as the rise to power of Reza Shah and his attempts to implement reform. Throughout this time, poets began to turn their attention towards the country's ordinary people, rather than concentrate on its elites. This volume also examines the prose fiction of the period, which saw the rise of the novel and short story. Additionally, Persian satire began to grow in importance, especially with the increased popularity of poets and novelists such as Iraj Mirza and Sadeq Hedayat. This wide-ranging volume is an invaluable companion for anyone who wants to understand how the Persian literary scene changed at the beginning of the twentieth century, reflecting the social and political contexts in which this literature was created
