Home

From Shirin to Taraghi: Women in Persian Literature from the Classical to the Contemporary

The participants of this panel propose to present a sequence of rather chronological talks, ranging from the classical period up to the contemporary era, focusing on female characters and female writers, on a range of various topics. The first talk will focus on the pseudo-historical figure of Shirin, the lover and later wife of the Sassanian king Khosrow Parviz, as presented in Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāme and later Neẓāmi Ganjavi’s Khosrow o Shirin, tracing the consistency and changes of this important character throughout two of Persian’s greatest literary pieces. The second will take into account female characters in the works of the contemporary author Shahrnush Parsipour— characters who originate from the classical era and reappear in the modern literature through the lens of Magical Realism. This presentation will examine how these characters develop, change and evolve in her fictions. The modern characters are re-appropriated by the author for the period in which she writes. The third presentation will examine magical realism in fiction by contemporary Iranian women writers and its use as feminist social critique, primarily through the short stories of Moniro Ravanipour and Farkhonde Aqa’i. It will also address the role of gender in the canonization process, and offer some analysis of the representation of women writers in short story anthologies, both in English and in Persian, from 1990 to the present. The last presentation will be about life-writing in Goli Taraghi’s Khāterehā-ye Parākande and her most recent work, The Pomegranate Lady. In Taraghi’s work, the author autobiographically explores themes of immigration, nostalgia, and loss while discussing a life in-between. Ultimately, each talk aims to explore the unique threads of Iranian women's writing while referencing the larger tapestry of Persian literature.

Presentations

Unadulterated Sweetness: The Case of Shirin from Ferdowsi to Nezami
by /

The character of Shirin is an important figure throughout Persian literature, beginning from the Shahnameh and continuing on to the ghazal tradition. In this talk I discuss the character of Shirin based off of two of the earliest and most substantial Persian literary sources in which she appears: Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (1010 CE) and Nezami's Khosorow o Shirin (1191 CE). I trace the formation and transformations of Shirin from Ferdowsi's epic to Nezami's masterpiece to see if the two manifestations of Shirin are, as some argue, indeed the manifestations of two varying characters, or if they are a continuing presence between the two texts. This presentation will be linked to the panel in that it represents one of the earliest female manifestations in Persian literature, on which the later modern authors draw; authors who will be discussed by my co-panelists.

Magical Realism as Feminist Critique in Iranian Women's Writing: The Cases of Moniro Ravanipour and Farkhonde Aqa'i
by /

This presentation will examine magical realism in fiction by contemporary Iranian women writers and its use as feminist social critique, primarily through the short stories of Moniro Ravanipour and Farkhonde Aqa’i. It suggests that critics have not always recognized the magical realist device in these writings for what it is -- an appeal to fantastical elements for writers to convey social commentary -- and have instead read it as misplaced fantasy for fantasy’s sake. Considering the recent dominance of women fiction writers in Iran, combined with this tendency to misread these stories, the paper then moves to investigate whether women’s writing has filtered its way into the modern anthologies to the degree expected. It addresses the role of gender in the canonization process, and offers some preliminary analysis of the representation of women writers in short story anthologies, both in English and in Persian, from 1990 to the present. In conducting this analysis, the paper looks to the contemporary theories on canonization in English literature, especially the feminist critic Joanna Russ. Russ noted in her investigation of anthologies of English poetry that 11% seems to be the magic number for the representation of women in the canon. This figure aligns strikingly with the percentage modern sociologists have discovered that a majority of people, male or female, will consider gender parity, that is, a shocking 17% female to 83% male. Finally, it concludes that a new genre for anthologizing women has emerged -- one that tends to be separate from so-called ‘mainstream’ (read: largely male) writing. This phenomenon is roughly analogous to what is occurring with other ‘hyphenated’ or Othered groups, including, for example, Kurdish writing in contemporary Iran, or diaspora literature in Persian. As such, it asks us as scholars to re-evaluate the assumptions underlying the canonization process of Persian literature and not to assume the perceived meritocracy of the process is immune from social forces. It encourages scholars to carefully evaluate their role in shaping the works of the current moment and ensuring which ones will be remembered in the future.

Pomegranate Seeds Scattered Like Memories: Exploring Memory, Exile, and Selfhood in Goli Taraghi’s Life Writing
by /

In transnational autobiographical narratives, life writers often attempt to reconcile themes of identity, belonging, and loss of home, particularly as they navigate movement in-between their homeland and their newly adopted countries. In Persian literature, the tradition of autobiographical writing is more recent, picking up popularity in the latter half of the twentieth century, especially after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. One such writer, Goli Taraghi, is more prominent and active in her autobiographical writing, particularly where it concerns themes of loss and exile. _Khāterhāi Parakāndeh_, or Scattered Memories, was published in Persian in 1992 as a series of autobiographical short stories retelling her childhood spent in Iran, in addition to other allegorical, fictional narratives like “Khānehi dar Āsemān,” or “House in the Sky,” recounting a grandmother’s displacement following the revolution. More specifically, her autobiofictional short stories simultaneously narrate the way her little girl is being picked up by a school bus set against a wintery backdrop in Paris, while also recalling stories of a similar school bus driving her as a child through the wintery snows of Tehran. Through these jumps in time and place, Taraghi draws attention to the stitches and seams of life writing and the fabric of remembering. Drawing on Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson’s seminal theoretical work on autobiographical writing, this talk notes three autobiographical 'I's permeating Taraghi’s narrative landscape, which reflect the shifting narrative voice: the narrating ‘I,’ narrated ‘I’ and ideological ‘I.’ These distinctions are helpful for determining the various modes of narration in Goli Taraghi’s work, which offers a multitude of reflections for viewing an autobiographical subject caught in-between worlds. While some of Taraghi’s work has been translated into other languages, like Faridoun Farrokh’s 2003 English translation of _Khāterhāi Parakāndeh_, renamed as A Mansion in the Sky: And Other Short Stories, it is Sara Khalili’s 2013 English translation of _The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons: Selected Stories_, which more prominently debuts Taraghi’s work to global Anglophone audiences. In this collection of autobiographical short stories, Taraghi presents frank pictures of her childhood in Tehran, exile and displacement in Paris, and subsequent return visits to a changing, post-revolutionary Iran. Ultimately, Taraghi’s agency is strengthened through autobiographical short stories that disrupt narratological convention, while critically evaluating a life in-between Iran and France.

Zan in “The Blue Intellect”: The Emblem of Emancipation: The Evolution of Female Characters In Parsipur’s Magical Realism Writings.
by /

In the interest of complicating existing conclusions about the nature of gender and genre in Parsipur’s novels, this study examines the female characters/heroines from the three novels of “Tuba and the Meaning of the Night” “Women without Men” and “The Blue Intellect” respectively. Via this examination, this article illustrates the way in The Blue Intellect, Zan (The Woman) has reached a state of emancipation which leads to a new resolution for women’s’ search for liberation. Women’s’ search for emancipation, which I argue is one of the main themes in Parsipur’s novels has reached its absolute state in Blue Intellect. This talk concentrates on the co-evolution of the female characters from the previous novels to show that Zan -the heroine in The Blue Intellect- is the emblem of all the female characters of Parsipur in a more complete and refined form without featuring a ethereal form, or super natural power. Is the heroine of the “The Blue Intellect” the emancipated, woman who has evolved in her journey and can appear just as Zan ?