Persian Literature as World Literature

273 Pages·2021·2.751 MB·English

by  Mostafa Abedinifard, Omid Azadibougar, Amirhossein Vafa

Persian Literature as World Literature
Literatures as World Literature
Can the literature of a specific country, author, or genre be used to approach
the elusive concept of “world literature”? Literatures as World Literature takes
a novel approach to world literature by analyzing specific constellations—
according to language, nation, form, or theme—of literary texts and authors
in their own world-literary dimensions.
World literature is obviously so vast that any view of it cannot help but be partial;
the question then becomes how to reduce the complex task of understanding and
describing world literature. Most treatments of world literature so far either have
been theoretical and thus abstract, or else have made broad use of exemplary texts
from a variety of languages and epochs. The majority of critical work, the filling
in of what has been traced, lies ahead of us. Literatures as World Literature fills
in the devilish details by allowing scholars to move outward from their own areas
of specialization, fostering scholarly writing that approaches more closely the
polyphonic, multiperspectival nature of world literature.
Series Editor:
Thomas O. Beebee
Editorial Board:
Eduardo Coutinho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Hsinya Huang, National Sun-yat Sen University, Taiwan
Meg Samuelson, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Ken Seigneurie, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Aarhus University, Denmark
Volumes in the Series
German Literature as World Literature, edited by Thomas O. Beebee
Roberto Bolaño as World Literature, edited by Nicholas Birns and Juan E. De Castro
Crime Fiction as World Literature, edited by David Damrosch, Theo D’haen,
and Louise Nilsson
Danish Literature as World Literature, edited by Dan Ringgaard and
Mads Rosendahl Thomsen
From Paris to Tlön: Surrealism as World Literature, by Delia Ungureanu
American Literature as World Literature, edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo
Romanian Literature as World Literature, edited by Mircea Martin,
Christian Moraru, and Andrei Terian
Brazilian Literature as World Literature, edited by Eduardo F. Coutinho
Dutch and Flemish Literature as World Literature, edited by Theo D’haen
Afropolitan Literature as World Literature, edited by James Hodapp
Francophone Literature as World Literature, edited by Christian Moraru,
Nicole Simek, and Bertrand Westphal
Bulgarian Literature as World Literature, edited by Mihaela P. Harper and
Dimitar Kambourov
Philosophy as World Literature, edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo
Turkish Literature as World Literature, edited by Burcu Alkan and
Çimen Günay-Erkol
Elena Ferrante as World Literature, by Stiliana Milkova
Multilingual Literature as World Literature, edited by Jane Hiddleston and
Wen-chin Ouyang
Persian Literature as World Literature, edited by Mostafa Abedinifard,
Omid Azadibougar, and Amirhossein Vafa
Mexican Literature as World Literature, edited by Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
(forthcoming)
Beyond English: World Literature and India, by Bhavya Tiwari (forthcoming)
Graphic Novels and Comics as World Literature, edited by James Hodapp
(forthcoming)
Feminism as World Literature, edited by Robin Truth Goodman (forthcoming)
Modern Irish Literature as World Literature, edited by Christopher Langlois
(forthcoming)
iv
Persian Literature as World
Literature
Edited by
Mostafa Abedinifard, Omid Azadibougar, and
Amirhossein Vafa
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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First published in the United States of America 2021
Volume Editor’s Part of the Work © Mostafa Abedinifard, Omid Azadibougar,
and Amirhossein Vafa, 2021
Each chapter © Contributors, 2021
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. xi constitute an
extension of this copyright page.
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-5422-9
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In memory of
Fatemeh Sayyah (1902–48),
pioneering polyglot, literary critic, and comparatist
viii
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Notes on Transliteration, Translation, and Dates xii
Introduction: Decolonizing a Peripheral Literature Amirhossein Vafa, Omid
Azadibougar, and Mostafa Abedinifard 1
Part One Literary Worldliness
1 The Birth of the German Ghazal out of the Spirit of World Literature
Amir Irani-Tehrani 17
2 Otherworld Literature: Parahuman Pasts in Classical Persian
Historiography and Epic Sam Lasman 35
3 Globalization in Pre- and Postrevolutionary Iranian Literature:
A Comparative Study of Authors inside and outside Iran
Naghmeh Esmaeilpour 51
4 Contemporary Persian Literature and Digital Humanities
Laetitia Nanquette 69
Part Two Traveling Texts
5 Genres without Borders: Reading Modern Iranian Literature beyond
“Center” and “Periphery” Marie Ostby 87
6 Persian Epistemes in Naim Frashëri’s Albanian Poetry Abdulla Rexhepi 105
7 Ecumenism and Globalism in the Reception of Ferdowsi and His
Shahnameh: Evidence from the “Baysonqori Preface” Olga M. Davidson 123
8 Cats and Dogs, Manliness, and Misogyny: On the Sindbad-nameh
as World Literature Alexandra Hoffmann 137
9 Cinema Joins Forces with Literature to Form Canon: The Cinematic
Afterlife of Saʿedi’s “The Cow” as World Literature Adineh Khojastehpour 153
Part Three The Transnational Turn
10 Until a Shirt Blossoms Red: Proto-Third Worldism in Ahmad Shamlou’s
Manifesto Levi Thompson 171