DOCSLIB.ORG

The Poetics of Commitment in Modern Persian: a Case of Three Revolutionary Poets in Iran

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Poetics of Commitment in Modern Persian: a Case of Three Revolutionary Poets in Iran The Poetics of Commitment in Modern Persian: A Case of Three Revolutionary Poets in Iran by Samad Josef Alavi A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Shahwali Ahmadi, Chair Professor Muhammad Siddiq Professor Robert Kaufman Fall 2013 Abstract The Poetics of Commitment in Modern Persian: A Case of Three Revolutionary Poets in Iran by Samad Josef Alavi Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Shahwali Ahmadi, Chair Modern Persian literary histories generally characterize the decades leading up to the Iranian Revolution of 1979 as a single episode of accumulating political anxieties in Persian poetics, as in other areas of cultural production. According to the dominant literary-historical narrative, calls for “committed poetry” (she‘r-e mota‘ahhed) grew louder over the course of the radical 1970s, crescendoed with the monarch’s ouster, and then faded shortly thereafter as the consolidation of the Islamic Republic shattered any hopes among the once-influential Iranian Left for a secular, socio-economically equitable political order. Such a narrative has proven useful for locating general trends in poetic discourses of the last five decades, but it does not account for the complex and often divergent ways in which poets and critics have reconciled their political and aesthetic commitments. This dissertation begins with the historical assumption that in Iran a question of how poetry must serve society and vice versa did in fact acquire a heightened sense of urgency sometime during the ideologically-charged years surrounding the revolution. But the dissertation departs from episodic approaches to modern Persian literature by demonstrating how the various discursive responses to the question--both in theory and in poetic practice--do not fit neatly into one concept of “political” poetry. Simply put, the term “commitment” (ta‘ahhod) refers to an on-going, unresolved debate in Persian poetics, not a discrete literary-historical phenomenon. Thus, even among ideologically aligned and/or self- identifying “committed” poets and critics, one encounters significant variations in the ways that each individual has understood poetics and politics to intersect. This dissertation investigates the ways that three modern Iranian poets work through the intersection of poetry and politics in both their theoretical writings and their verse. In each of the three cases, the poets agree that poetry serves as a locus of political resistance and in this sense all three poets might fall under the general rubric of commitment that supposedly marked the period in which they wrote. However, as I demonstrate, each case study also produces a distinct poetics of commitment. In Sa‘id Soltanpur (chapter one) the dissertation locates a militant poetics, arguing that poetry can participate directly in armed liberation struggles. In M.R. Shafi‘i Kadkani (chapter two) the dissertation encounters a poetics of moral outrage, arguing that the canonical traditions of Persian classical and Islamic mystical poetry provide the discursive means through which to intervene in contemporary socio-political conditions. In Ahmad Shamlu 1 (chapter three) the dissertation locates a humanist poetics that treats poetry’s invitation for critical reflective judgement as itself a form of resistance to repressive state and economic structures, but does not put forth any particular alternative structure in their place. Finally, the dissertation concludes by considering the the poetry and criticism of Mohammad Mokhtari (chapter four) as articulations of a post-revolutionary poetics of commitment. Methodologically, the dissertation takes special care to distinguish between the theories as they are articulated in discursive prose and the particular way that the poems themselves respond to, expand upon, or challenge the theories’ claims. For its theoretical framework, the dissertation attempts to place modern Persian poetics in dialogue with Sartre’s writings on commitment, Adorno’s response to Sartre, Frankfurt School aesthetics, and European and American poetries. Ultimately, the dissertation aims to demonstrate how the question of poetry’s service to society historically produced fruitful and variegated debates in Persian poetics and that the question remains relevant and unresolved today. The dissertation also includes an appendix with original, parallel translations of the Persian poems considered at length throughout the main body of the text. 2 To the memory of my uncle, Mehdi Alavi Shoshtari, 1955-1980, and the future of my children, Mina Kate Alavi & Zain Ali Alavi i. Table of Contents Acknowledgements v Note on Transliteration and Translation vi Introduction vii Rise and Fall of a Discourse vii The Dissertation x Historical Development of the Poetics of Commitment: A Brief Socio-Political Chronology xiii Chapter One: A Type of Struggle, A Type of Verse: Sa‘id Soltanpur and the Poetics of Militancy 1 I. Introduction: A Poet Takes the Stage 1 II. The Current Scholarship: A Siyahkal Decade in Poetry 3 Chronological Considerations 3 Formal and Thematic Considerations 4 Challenges to the Existing Scholarship 6 III. Theorizing a Poetics of Militancy: The Demands on Combative Art 7 Founding Documents: Soltanpur’s A Type of Art, A Type of Thought 7 Defining Objectivity 8 Fellow Militants: Khosrow Golesorkhi and Mahmud Darwish on Poetic Objectivity 10 The Sloganeering Question 11 Complicated Slogans: Naser Purqomi’s Critical Take 12 Sloganeering and Armed Propaganda 13 A New Classicism: Combative Poetics as Anti-Formalism 14 Anti-Formalism in Practice: The Critical Response 16 Contemporary Militant Poetics: American Guerrilla Poetry in Practice 18 Sa‘id Soltanpur From Theory to Practice 21 IV. Hovering Above the Meeting: The Poetry of Sa‘id Soltanpur 23 Prison Lyric (Ghazal-e Band) 23 In Pahlavi Prison (Dar Band-e Pahlavi) 26 Communist Victor (Jahân-e Komunist) 33 V. Conclusion: Problems in Biography 42 Chapter Two: Living in Lyric: Shafi‘i Kadkani’s Poetics of Moral Outrage 44 I. Introduction: Poems in Prison or Prison Poems? 44 II. The Current Scholarship: Neoclassical Poetics as Radical, Reflective and Reactionary 47 Three Critical Views 47 The Siyahkal Paradigm 48 ii. The Canonical View 50 The Anti-Classical Critique 52 Rethinking Neoclassicism 54 III. Imagined Realities: Shafi‘i’s Poetics in Theory 55 The Poetic Image As Constitutive Element 55 The Poetic Image in Political Dimensions 57 The Poetic Image in Mystical Dimensions 62 Mysticism in Political Dimensions 64 Liberation in Return 66 IV. Radical Returns: Reading On The Garden Pathways of Nishapur 67 On The Garden Pathways of Nishapur (Dar Kucheh Bâgh’hâ-ye Neshâbur) 67 The Opening (Dibâcheh) 68 Encounter (Didar) 75 On Living and Lyric (Az Budan o Sorudan) 83 V. Conclusion: Contemplation is the Cause 87 Chapter Three: A Weapon of the Masses: Ahmad Shamlu and the Poetics of Humanism 90 I. Introduction: A Call to Arms 90 II. The Commitment Debate Revisited 92 The National Call to Commit 92 European Counterparts 94 Persian Responses 95 Resistance Poetry 97 Historical Margins of a Debate: From Constitutionalists to Guerrillas 99 III. Symbolism and the Subject: Poetry’s Humanist Commitment 101 IV. Lyric Vanguard, Imagined Masses: Voice and Commitment in Shamlu’s Poetry106 Standard Bearers of Humanity 106 Individuals, Masses, and Multitudes 108 Singular Martyrs at the Vanguard 110 The Poet as Vanguard 114 The Poet as Subject 115 The Disillusioned Voice 117 V. Bloodied Nightmare of the Awakened: Humanism After Revolution 119 Chapter 4: Conclusions and Afterlives: Commitment After Revolution 122 Ruptures and Repercussions: Literary History Following The Islamic Revolution 122 Post-Revolutionary Commitments: Mohammad Mokhtari and Ja‘far Puyandeh 124 Poetry After Velâyat-e Faqih: History and Memory in a Poem by Mohammad Mokhtari 126 Conclusion: Resurfacing Commitments 131 iii. Bibliography 133 Appendix: Parallel Translations 140 iv. Acknowledgements I cannot imagine having started this dissertation, much less finished it, without the guidance and support of many colleagues, friends, and loved ones over the years. My chair and mentor, Wali Ahmadi, has encouraged and promoted my work generously, lending his profound knowledge of Persian literature, critical theory, and cultural studies to every facet of my doctoral degree, from course work to conference papers to the countless drafts and revisions that preceded the present work. Muhammad Siddiq guided me through both the Arabic language with its endlessly rich literature and through a broader body of modern poetry, fiction, and criticism under the aegis of his exacting and rigorous scholarship. Robert Kaufman opened my eyes to a boundless world of critical theory and poetics. If this dissertation gets anything about Marxian theory, Frankfurt School aesthetics, or, indeed, commitment, right, it is undoubtedly thanks to Professor Kaufman’s graduate seminars and his meticulous comments on the many papers and drafts that I have sent his way. Saeed Yousef at the University of Chicago has contributed his incomparable expertise to much of my work over the years. He has offered his profoundly insightful feedback to nearly all my translations and continues to answer my endless barrage of questions on Persian poetry and Iranian politics at any time of day or night.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • UT Newsletter
    Managing Director & Editor-in-Chief: Abbas Ghanbari Baghestan (PhD) Compiler(s): Soghra Davarifard, Mansoureh Asbari, and Zohreh Ramezani Doustkouhi Translator: Mona Jafari Translation Supervisor: Dr. Maryam Soltan Beyad Photographer(s): Farshad Zohali, Akbar Pourbagher Moghadam, and Abolfazl Rajabian Graphic Designer(s): Mehraveh Taghizadeh and Mohammad Reza Gharghani Compositor and Typesetter: L. Eskandarpour Publisher: Office of Public Relations, University of Tehran (UT), May 2021 Address: UT Central Administration, 16 Azar St. Tehran, Iran. Tell: 61113417, 66419831, E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.ut.ac.ir/en Preface the constituent parts of a network of science and knowledge repositories comprised of human, The establishment of the University of Tehran in infrastructural, and technological resources. A 1313 (1934 AD), as the successor to Amir Kabir’s survey of the university’s major historical events Dar ul-Funun (1851 AD), represented a watershed since its establishment, an examination of the in early 14th-century Iran (according to the Solar lives and activities of key players in maintaining Hijri calendar). From the outset, the University of the leading position of the University of Tehran in Tehran bore the title of “Iran’s largest Academic the national scientific, research, and technological Institution”, and now, after about 90 years since arenas, and a study of the contexts and factors its establishment, the University of Tehran still making for the powerful and productive presence gleams like a gemstone aloft in the firmament of of the University of Tehran in the regional and Iran’s scientific knowledge, holding such noble international scientific, research, and technological titles as the “First Modern University in Iran”, arenas all serve to substantiate such a claim.
    [Show full text]
  • Staging Iranian Modernity: Authors in Search of New Forms
    Copyright by Maryam Shariati 2016 The Dissertation Committee for Maryam Shariati certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Staging Iranian Modernity: Authors in Search of New Forms Committee: Elizabeth M. Richmond-Garza, Supervisor Mohammad R. Ghanoonparvar, Co-Supervisor Lynn R. Wilkinson Katherine M. Arens Sofian Merabet Staging Iranian Modernity: Authors in Search of New Forms by Maryam Shariati, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The University of Texas at Austin May 2016 Dedication For my soulmate, Ehsan. For everything. Acknowledgements I wish to gratefully acknowledge the guidance and support I have received, intellectual and otherwise, throughout the process of composing and revising this dissertation. My first debt of gratitude is to my dissertation committee members and in particular my indefatigable supervisor, Professor Elizabeth Richmond-Garza, for her unflinching encouragement and infinite forbearance throughout my studies at The University of Texas at Austin. She has been an erudite mentor, critical commentator, and encouraging guide and I thank her for sharing her wealth of knowledge, invaluable insight and expertise in this project. To my co-supervisor, Professor Mohammad R. Ghanoonparvar, I owe immeasurable debt of gratitude for his intellectual guidance and strong commitment to my research—from the start to finish. His boundless enthusiasm, great knowledge, and unfathomable erudition opened an avenue to many stimulating discussions and enabled me to have a clear direction of my project. Another substantial acknowledgement must go to Professor Lynn Wilkinson for her instrumental role at every stage of my research: conceptualizing, researching, and writing.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Modern Politicization of the Persian Poet Nezami Ganjavi
    Official Digitized Version by Victoria Arakelova; with errata fixed from the print edition ON THE MODERN POLITICIZATION OF THE PERSIAN POET NEZAMI GANJAVI YEREVAN SERIES FOR ORIENTAL STUDIES Edited by Garnik S. Asatrian Vol.1 SIAVASH LORNEJAD ALI DOOSTZADEH ON THE MODERN POLITICIZATION OF THE PERSIAN POET NEZAMI GANJAVI Caucasian Centre for Iranian Studies Yerevan 2012 Siavash Lornejad, Ali Doostzadeh On the Modern Politicization of the Persian Poet Nezami Ganjavi Guest Editor of the Volume Victoria Arakelova The monograph examines several anachronisms, misinterpretations and outright distortions related to the great Persian poet Nezami Ganjavi, that have been introduced since the USSR campaign for Nezami‖s 800th anniversary in the 1930s and 1940s. The authors of the monograph provide a critical analysis of both the arguments and terms put forward primarily by Soviet Oriental school, and those introduced in modern nationalistic writings, which misrepresent the background and cultural heritage of Nezami. Outright forgeries, including those about an alleged Turkish Divan by Nezami Ganjavi and falsified verses first published in Azerbaijan SSR, which have found their way into Persian publications, are also in the focus of the authors‖ attention. An important contribution of the book is that it highlights three rare and previously neglected historical sources with regards to the population of Arran and Azerbaijan, which provide information on the social conditions and ethnography of the urban Iranian Muslim population of the area and are indispensable for serious study of the Persian literature and Iranian culture of the period. ISBN 978-99930-69-74-4 The first print of the book was published by the Caucasian Centre for Iranian Studies in 2012.
    [Show full text]
  • The Danger of a Single Story‟: Reading (More Than) Lolita in Tehran Saiyma Aslam1
    Kashmir Journal of Languager Research, Vol. 23 No. 1 (2020) 79 „The Danger of a Single Story‟: Reading (more than) Lolita in Tehran Saiyma Aslam1 Abstract „The danger of a single story‟ is incalculable especially when it shapes judgments in support of Western imperial aggression in the name of War on Terror. Following Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‟s stand on discursive dangers of a single story, Peter McLaren‟s take on the need of critical pedagogy to study who benefits from popularization of certain accounts and why and Hilde Lindemann Nelson‟s research on developing “counterstory” to offset the negative image an oppressive story conveys, I argue that a contrapuntal study of Azar Nafisi‟s Reading Lolita in Tehran is needed to expose its reductive, decontextualized and neo-orientalist details about Iranian women, culture and politics. For that, I draw comparisons with Fatemeh Keshavarz‟s Jasmine and stars: Reading more than Lolita in Tehran (2007), Shirin Ebadi‟s Iran awakening: A memoir of revolution and hope (2006) and Azadeh Moaveni‟s Lipstick jihad: A memoir of growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran (2005). This article argues for a critical dialogue between memoirs and their social and political settings to offset the negative implications of reductive and decontextualized accounts and encourage greater circulation of multiple perspectives on any situation. Keywords: post 9/11, counter story, critical pedagogy, neo-orientalism, memoir. 1. Introduction The Muslim woman is a “semiotic subject” and an unfixed signifier that has been “produced and reproduced” in orientalist and neo-orientalist discourses to further the interests of the West (Zayzafoon, 2005, p.2).2 Never has this had such an unsettling repercussions than in the case of new positioning(s) she has received through a double bind: how our elite group of neo-orientalists/neo-comprador intelligencia ties horns with the US liberal, neo conservative agenda tuned more 1 Assistant Professor, Department of English, IIU, Islamabad.
    [Show full text]
  • PUBLISHER S Iranian Opposition to the Shah
    HAH S Guide Iranian Opposition to the Shah Advisor: Wolfgang H. Behn Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin RANIAN OPPOSITION TO THE I AIDC PUBLISHERP U R L 1 5H E R S S BRILLB RI LL WolfgangWolfgang H.H. Behn,Behn, StaatsbibliothekStaatsbibliothek Preussischer Preussischer Kulturbesitz,Kulturbesitz, BerlinBerlin GuideGuide to the microform collection collection IDC numbersnumbers NE-1550NE-1550 - NE-1578 NE-1578 MU IDCIDC PUBLISHERSPUBLISHERS 1988 The Iranian opposition to the Shah The overthrow of the Shah came as a great surprise, even to many Iranists, in spite of the fact that the revolution had been in the air in Tehran long before this was realized in the West. More enigmatic than the Islamic revolution itself were the aims of its supporters, although most of the opposition groups had explicitly stated their objectives in their publications long before the revolution. But the tightening censorship in Iran had forced the whole spectrum of the opposition to publish abroad. The evasive nature of dissident literature makes bibliographical control, and acquisition in general, extremely difficult. In the case of the Iranian revolution we are fortunate that "W.H. Behn has taken on the formidable task of listing (in his bibliographies) every publication of an anti-Pahlavi nature in Persian, or in other languages about Iran, published outside Iran between 1962 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The measure of his success is that he has amassed a total of some 800 books and pamphlets... [The ] work... will be an indispensable tool for anyone studying the recent history of Iran and the sources of the opposition to the Shah that led to the revolution of 1979" (Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Craig Hillmann–Résumé Copy
    Michael Craig Hillmann–Résumé, 1996-2017 3404 Perry Lane, Austin, Texas 78731, USA 512-451-4385 (home tel), 512-653-5152 (cell phone) UT Austin WMB 5.146 office: 512-475-6606 (tel) and 512-471-4197 (fax) [email protected] and [email protected] (e-mail addresses) Web sites: www.utexas.Academia.edu/MichaelHillmann, www.Issuu.com/MichaelHillmann Academic Training_____________________________________________________________________________________________ • Classics, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester (MA), 1958-59. • B.A., English literature, Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD), 1962. • Postgraduate study, English literature, The Creighton University, Omaha (NB), 1962-64. • M.A., Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago, 1969. • Postgraduate study, Persian literature, University of Tehran, 1969-73. • Ph.D., Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago, 1974. • M.A., English Literature, Texas State University at San Marcos (1997). Professional Positions since 1996__________________________________________________________________________________ • Professor of Persian, The University of Texas at Austin, 1974- . • President, Persepolis Institute (non-academic Persian Language consultants), Austin, 1977- . Teaching since 1996____________________________________________________________________________________________ Language • Elementary Colloquial/Spoken and Bookish/Written Persian (First-year Persian 1 and 2) • Elementary Persian Reading for Iranian Heritage Speakers • Intermediate
    [Show full text]
  • Iran's Long History and Short-Term Society
    IJEP International Journal of Economics and Politics Iran’s Long History and Short-Term Society 1 Homa Katouzian Oxford University,UK* ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Iran has a long history and a short-term society. It is a country with thousands Date of submission: 27-04-2019 of years of history, the great variety of every aspect of which is at least partly Date of acceptance: 21-07-2019 responsible for the diversity of opinions and emotions among its peoples. It is an ancient land of the utmost variety in nature, art and architecture, languages, literature and culture. When the Greeks (from whom European civilisations JEL Classification: B10 descend) came across the Iranians first, Persian Iranians were ruling that country as the Persian empire, and they called it ‘Persis’. Just as when the A14 N10 Persians first came into contact with Ionian Greeks, they called the entire Greek lands ‘Ionia’. To this day Iranians refer to Greece as Ionia (=Yunan) and the Greeks as Ionians (=Yunaniyan). Thus from the ancient Greeks to 1935, Keywords: Iran was known to Europeans as Persia; then the Iranian government, prompted Iran’s Long History by their crypto-Nazi contacts in Germany, demanded that other countries Term Society officially call it Iran, largely to publicise the Aryan origins of the country. This Iran meant that, for a long time, almost the entire historical and cultural connotations of the country were lost to the West, the country often being confused with Iraq, and many if not most mistakenly thinking that it too was an Arab country.
    [Show full text]
  • Oman Embarks on New Yemen Diplomacy
    WWW.TEHRANTIMES.COM I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y 8 Pages Price 50,000 Rials 1.00 EURO 4.00 AED 43rd year No.13960 Monday JUNE 7, 2021 Khordad 17, 1400 Shawwal 26, 1442 Qatar calls for dialogue I know Bahrain like Tehran, Seoul expected Iran’s “Statue” tops at between Iran and back of my hand: to resume trade within VAFI & RAFI animation Arab neighbors Page 3 Dragan Skocic Page 3 3 months Page 4 festival Page 8 Candidates face each other in first televised debate Oman embarks on new TEHRAN – The first televised debates Some analysts said the debates had no among seven presidential candidates were clear winner and that candidates mostly held on Saturday afternoon. trade accusations against each other rather The hot debates took place between five than elaborate on their plans. principlist candidates - especially Saeed Hemmati was claiming that most can- See page 3 Jalili, Alireza Zakani, and Mohsen Rezaei didates were making attacks against him - with Nasser Hemmati. which was not fair. Yemen diplomacy The main contention was over an ap- A presidential candidate, Nasser Imani, proval of FATF and skyrocketing prices, said the days left to the election day are which most candidates held the central important. bank responsible for. Continued on page 2 Iran, EAEU soon to begin talks over establishing free trade zone TEHRAN - Iran and the Eurasian Economic tee, on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Union (EAEU) are set to begin negotiations International Economic Forum. on a full-fledged joint free trade zone in “The EAEU made the appropriate de- the near future, the press service of the cisions regarding the launch of the nego- Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) tiations in December 2020.
    [Show full text]
  • Women Musicians and Dancers in Post-Revolution Iran
    Negotiating a Position: Women Musicians and Dancers in Post-Revolution Iran Parmis Mozafari Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Music January 2011 The candidate confIrms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. 2011 The University of Leeds Parmis Mozafari Acknowledgment I would like to express my gratitude to ORSAS scholarship committee and the University of Leeds Tetly and Lupton funding committee for offering the financial support that enabled me to do this research. I would also like to thank my supervisors Professor Kevin Dawe and Dr Sita Popat for their constructive suggestions and patience. Abstract This research examines the changes in conditions of music and dance after the 1979 revolution in Iran. My focus is the restrictions imposed on women instrumentalists, dancers and singers and the ways that have confronted them. I study the social, religious, and political factors that cause restrictive attitudes towards female performers. I pay particular attention to changes in some specific musical genres and the attitudes of the government officials towards them in pre and post-revolution Iran. I have tried to demonstrate the emotional and professional effects of post-revolution boundaries on female musicians and dancers. Chapter one of this thesis is a historical overview of the position of female performers in pre-modern and contemporary Iran.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxists Into Muslims: an Iranian Irony Abdolrahim Javadzadeh Florida International University, [email protected]
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@Florida International University Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 11-13-2007 Marxists into Muslims: An Iranian Irony Abdolrahim Javadzadeh Florida International University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Javadzadeh, Abdolrahim, "Marxists into Muslims: An Iranian Irony" (2007). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 36. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/36 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida MARXISTS INTO MUSLIMS: THE IRANIAN IRONY A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY by Abdolrahim Javadzadeh 2007 To: Interim Dean Mark Szuchman College of Arts and Sciences This dissertation, written by Abdolrahim Javadzadeh, and entitled Marxists into Muslims: The Iranian Irony, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. ____________________________________ Douglas Kincaid ____________________________________ Mohiaddin Mesbahi ___________________________________ Barry B. Levine, Major Professor Date of Defense: November 13, 2007 The dissertation of Abdolrahim Javadzadeh is approved. ___________________________________ Interim Dean Mark Szuchman College of Arts and Sciences ____________________________________ Dean George Walker University Graduate School Florida International University, 2007 ii © Copyright 2007 by Abdolrahim Javadzadeh All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • Laetitia Nanquette
    5 THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN 10 IRANIAN BESTSELLER 15 20 Laetitia Nanquette QA: MSK COLL: MM University of New South Wales, Australia 25 ..................Memoirs by Iranian women in the diaspora have long been the standard reading for western readers interested in Iran. However, The Book of Fate bestseller by Parinoush Saniee, a popular novel newly translated into English and circulation many other European languages, interpolates both the orientalist discourse 30 memoirs offer and the Iranian memoirs industry. The translation of this Iranian literature Iranian text with a feminist Islamic discourse inserts the book into a global literary field context that allows the perception of Iran to impact on western stereotypes. Assisted by its writer, literary agent, translator and publisher, it also has the 35 postcolonial agency, a ‘distributed agency’ to interpolate the dominant system of translation publishing and circulation. My methodology is a combination of close reading, postcolonial theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of the literary ................. field, which I adapt to the Iranian and English-speaking context. I analyse 40 the publishing processes in Iran and in English-speaking countries, the book covers, the reception of major literary awards, commercial success, and critical reception (critics, media attention, reviews by general readers on websites such as Amazon and Goodreads). 45 50 ....................................................................................................... interventions, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2016.1191960 © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 55 ............................interventions 2 What comes to mind to general readers if they are asked to name some texts of 60 Iranian literature? Perhaps works of classical Persian poetry or, more likely, memoirs written in English by writers of Iranian origin, such as Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian)
    Coor din ates: 3 2 °N 5 3 °E Iran Irān [ʔiːˈɾɒːn] ( listen)), also known اﯾﺮان :Iran (Persian [11] [12] Islamic Republic of Iran as Persia (/ˈpɜːrʒə/), officially the Islamic (Persian) ﺟﻣﮫوری اﺳﻼﻣﯽ اﯾران Jomhuri-ye ﺟﻤﮭﻮری اﺳﻼﻣﯽ اﯾﺮان :Republic of Iran (Persian Eslāmi-ye Irān ( listen)),[13] is a sovereign state in Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān Western Asia.[14][15] With over 81 million inhabitants,[7] Iran is the world's 18th-most-populous country.[16] Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2 (636,37 2 sq mi), it is the second-largest country in the Middle East and the 17 th-largest in the world. Iran is Flag Emblem bordered to the northwest by Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan,[a] to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the Motto: اﺳﺗﻘﻼل، آزادی، ﺟﻣﮫوری اﺳﻼﻣﯽ northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan Esteqlāl, Āzādi, Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf ("Independence, freedom, the Islamic of Oman, and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. The Republic") [1] country's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, (de facto) and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, give it Anthem: ﺳرود ﻣﻠﯽ ﺟﻣﮫوری اﺳﻼﻣﯽ اﯾران geostrategic importance.[17] Tehran is the country's capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic Sorud-e Melli-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān ("National Anthem of the Islamic Republic of Iran") and cultural center. 0:00 MENU Iran is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations,[18][19] beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BCE.
    [Show full text]