Persian Literature and Modernity - Production and Reception

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 fi rst done through the rehabilitation of concepts embedded in tradition,
including the munāzirah (debate), Ahrīman (the demonic), tajarrud (radical
aloneness) and nā riz̤ā yatī (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.