87346 - Literary Civilisation of Modern and Contemporary Iran (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will have acquired an advanced level of knowledge of Neo-Persian culture and literature with reference to the original sources. They will be able independently to conduct documentary and bibliographic research, so as to apply their skills in the editorial and publishing field and in the promotion of the cultural heritage.

Course contents

All cultural and literary themes of the program will be treated considering the historical context in which they are born and develop. These contents will be elaborated chronologically together with the socio-political events of the recent history of Iran. A contextualized analysis of linguistic and literary phenomena will offer students the opportunity to evaluate the innovative processes of the Persian language, culture and literature in an overall framework. The close relationship between the cultural and social political phenomena of modern Iran will be the leitmotif of the three parts of the program.

I part:

First ferments of change
The need for renewal (1850-1900)
History of linguistic and literary changes
Social and political themes in the literature
Popular language at the service of change
Method and luck of translation from Western languages
Constitutionalist revolution (1906-11)
Constitutionalist poetry and motion
The meeting with European literature
The birth of the Pahlavi dynasty (1921-1979)
Occidentalism and modernity
Journalism and satire
Historical novel, travel diaries, popular novel

Part II:
Linguistic, social, cultural and literary innovation
Socio-political changes between 1925 and 1941
Persian culture and "Modernity"
Jamalzadeh and Nima Yushij: first exponents of linguistic and literary change
"New" poetry and "classical" poetry: two parallel currents
Events after 1941; new socio-political structure
Social novel, visionary novel, romance
Literature for childhood, social fairy tales, mythological fairy tales
Rural and folkloristic writing
The "Nouvelle vague" in prose and poetry
Satire and its social role
Research of cultural identity and westernization
The 60s and 70s and the collapse of the political system

Part III:

The Iranian Revolution and its social, cultural, linguistic and literary reflections (1979-2010)
The birth of the Islamic Republic
The Cultural Revolution
Literature at the service of the Revolution
War and resistance
Religious writing, "epic" writing
New forms of mysticism in literature
Literature and female writing
Historical novel, biographical novel, popular novel
Literature and cinema
The Persian language between recovery of Arabic vocabulary and European loans
The Persian language and new means of mass communication
The literature of the diaspora
Works in translation

 

The course starts on Monday 23 March 2020 with the following times

Monday 16-18 Classroom 1 Zamboni 33
Wednesday 13-15 Classroom XI Zamboni 38
Friday 13-15 Classroom XI Zamboni 38

Readings/Bibliography

We recommend the following texts:

deepening

A. M. Piemontese, History of Persian Literature, 2 vols., Milan, Fratelli Fabbri, 1970

J. Rypka, A History of Iranian Literature, Doordrecht, Reidel Publishing Company, 1968

A. Bausani, A. Pagliaro, Persian literature, Sansoni-Accademia, Florence-Milan 1968

Ch. Balay, Z. Vesel, Aux sources de la nouvelle persane, Paris, 1983

F. Machalski, Litterature de l'Iran contemporain, I-III, Cracow1965-1980

A.A The garden and the stream, Looks at contemporary Persian literature, Proceedings of the international conference (12 March 2015, Bologna), (edited by), Aracne publisher, Rome, 2016

A.A The imperfect affinities, Literary and artistic elements of Italian and Persian culture compared, edited by Maurizio Pistoso, Paolo Emilio Persiani publisher, 2018

readings

S. Hedayat, La civetta cieca, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1960 (then Milan, ES, 1993)

S. Hedayat, Three drops of blood, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1979

S. Hedayat, The blind owl. Three drops of blood, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2006

A. Kiarostami, A lurking wolf, edited by R. Zipoli, Turin, Einaudi, 2003

A. Kiarostami, The wind and the leaf, (Persian text opposite), edited by F. Mardani, Florence, Le Lettere, 2014

F. Farrokhzad, The massacre of flowers, by D. Ingenito, Naples, Orientexpress, 2008

F. Farrokhzad, It is only the voice that remains. Songs of a rebel twentieth century Iranian woman, edited by F. Mardani, presentation by C. Saccone, Reggio Emilia, Aliberti, 2009

S. Sepehri, Sino al fiore del nulla, curated by N. Norozi, presentation C. Saccone, Arcane, 2014

Sh. Parsipur, Women without Men, edited by A. Vanzan, Milan, Tranchida, 2004

Sh. Parsipur, Tuba and the sense of the night, Milan, Tranchida, 2000

Sh. Ebadi, La cage d'oro, Milan, Rizzoli, 2008

Gh. Saedi, The house next to the forest, edited by F. Bertotti, Turin, Lindau, 2003

F. Bertotti, The minarets and the sky. Persian tales of the 20th century, Palermo, Sellerio, 1989

S. Behrangi, The little black fish, edited by M. Casari, Rome, Donzelli, 2008

G. Taraghi, Three women. Tales from Iran, edited by A. Vanzan, Rome, Ed. Lavoro

S. Daneshvar, Suvashun, edited by Anna Vanzan, Francesco Brioschi publisher, 2018

Z. 'Abdi, In Tehran snails make noise, edited by Anna Vanzan, Francesco Brioschi publisher, 2017

Teaching methods

Lectures, watching movies or documentaries. Seminars on the art and culture of contemporary Iran.

Assessment methods

The in-depth knowledge of the single topics covered during the course, the ability to contextualize historical, cultural and literary phenomena and to identify the elements of originality characterizing studied literary texts will be verified. Moreover, the capacity of critical synthesis of the reference bibliography will be evaluated, in addition to the expressive properties, in terms of accuracy and appropriateness of language. The global knowledge of the historical-cultural period and the ease with which reference texts can be used to support this vision will be evaluated as excellence.

The achievement by the student of an organic vision of the topics covered in class and the knowledge provided for the joint discipline to their critical use, the demonstration of possession of an expressive mastery and specific language will be elements of evaluation during the verification.

A mnemonic knowledge of the subject and ability to synthesize and analyze articulated in a correct language, but not always appropriate, will lead to discrete evaluations.

Training gaps and / or inappropriate language, albeit in a context of minimal knowledge of the exam material, will lead to grades that will not exceed sufficiency.

Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials foreseen by the course will be evaluated negatively.

The oral exam will include the presentation of a short literary research of a few pages, on a theme or an author, chosen at will among the topics exposed during the course.

Preparation is required on a detailed text, part of the recent historical period (see bibliography) and a literary text.

Non-attending students will have to study an in-depth text, part relating to the recent historical period (see bibliography) and a literary text. Also prepare a paper on topics discussed during the course in agreement with the teacher.

However, non-attending students must contact the lecturer at the beginning of the course and agree on the specific preparation times for each course and the method of verification.

IMPORTANT: calculation method for the final grade

The present course (6CFU) is a member of the integrated course "87344 CIVILTÀ LETTERARIA PERSIANA (CI) (LM)". If the student has the integrated course (12CFU) in the study plan, the final grade will be the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two components ("87345 - LITERARY CIVILIZATION OF THE EXTERNAL PERSIA (1) (LM)" and "LITERARY CIVILIZATION OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY IRAN (1) (LM)".

Teaching tools

They will be made available to students with handouts translated from the unpublished material on specific themes and on the works of contemporary Persian authors not translated into European languages.

Films and documentaries will be viewed and commented with the students on topics related to the literary and cultural phenomena of today's Iran. 

Office hours

See the website of Faezeh Mardani