A lecture by Aria Fani (UC Berkeley)

Sunday, May 20, 2018
4:00 PM
121 Dodd Hall
UCLA

This talk will consider the role of early twentieth-century Persian-language journals in institutionalizing what we know as Persian literary history today in Iran and Afghanistan. The focus of the talk will be Mohammad Taqi Bahar's journal Daneshkadeh, and in particular 'Abbas Eqbal-Ashtiyani's series titled "Tarikh-e adabi" (Literary history, 1918-1919). Once we investigate the ways in which literary journals have helped to forge and institutionalize Persian literary history, they will emerge not just as a byproduct of literary modernization, but as one of its main sites of power and literary production.

Aria Fani is a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley. His dissertation is titled "Creating Persian Literature: Sites of Power and Literary Production in Twentieth-century Iran and Afghanistan (1860-1960)." His research centers on translation studies, nineteenth and twentieth-century Persian literary culture in Iran and Afghanistan and the social space of Persian in Mughal India. His scholarly work has been published in Iranian Studies, Iran Nameh, TRANS (Revista de traductologia), Oxford Handbook of Artistic Citizenship. Since 2008, he has been writing on Persian poetry for venues such as Words Without Borders, Tehran Bureau, Ajam Media Collective, and Peyk (Persian Cultural Center's Bilingual Magazine).

Campus map is available HERE

Cost : Free and open to the public.

Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Iranian Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, This event is made possible with the major support of the Amuzegar Chair in Iranian Studies and the Musa Sabi Term Chair of Iranian Studies and the generous support of The Farhang Foundation.