31568 - Persian Culture and Literature 1

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is broadly familiar with the origins and development of Neo-Persian literature of the early centuries, both in relation to the Arabic and ancient-Iranian heritage and to the historical and cultural context of Muslim Iran. In particular, the student becomes familiar, including through the proposal and commentary of examples in translation, with the main poetic genres (qaside, ghazal, quatrain, mathnavi) and deepens the relationship between poetry and Islamic mysticism or Sufism.

Course contents

IMPORTANT NOTE

A. Students who have chosen one of the following examinations: Persian 1 (12 cfu, ARCO), Persian Language and Literature 1 (12 cfu, MA), Persian Language and Culture (10 cfu, SVIC) are required to take, in addition to ‘Persian Literature 1’, Persian Language and Linguistics Exercises 1 (first semester two weekly meetings, Dr Negar Abbasi). The text-book that will be used in class: N. Norozi e N. Abbasi Boroujeni, Lezioni di Persiano per Principianti, seconda edizione, Centro Essad Bey – Amazon IP, Seattle, 2025.

PLEASE NOTE: Students interested in a Persian thesis and those interested in pursuing further study of the language are strongly encouraged to also take the course ‘Persian Language and Linguistics 1’, taught in the second semester by Prof. Nahid Norozi (see link: https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/nahid.norozi2/didattica/programma/2025/431533).

B. INVECTIVELY, students who have chosen the Persian Language and Linguistics 1A (6 cfu, Master's degree) are required to take ONLY the first part of Persian Literature 1 (until mid-November), in addition to the first part of Persian Language and Linguistics 1 (i.e. only from the end of September to December, Prof. Negar Abbasi).

COURSE SYLLABUS

In addition to an introductory overview of the Iranian world, the course aims to trace an overall profile of Persian literature from the Middle Ages to the contemporary period, with a focus on narrative, both in verse (epic poems, romance, mysticism) and prose (short stories, fables, novels). Emphasis will be placed on recurring genres, forms, motifs and themes in fiction from the classical period.

The course will include the presentation of the main literary genres, of the works of particular relevance and the reading of significant excerpts from various Persian narrators of the classical period such as Ferdowsi (10th-11th cent.), Gorgani (11th cent.), Kay Kā'us ibn Iskandar, (11th cent. ), Attar (12th c.), Suhrawardi (12th c.) Nezami (12th-13th c.), Sa'di (13th c.), Rumi (13th c.), Bardasiri (13th c.), Khwaju Kermani (14th c.); and from the contemporary period such as Iqbāl Lāhuri, Simin Daneshvar, Shahrnush Parsipour, Hamid Ziarati and Bijan Zarmandili. The course also includes the viewing of two films based on previously studied literary works, and possible in-depth seminars.

WHY STUDY PERSIAN LITERATURE?
Classical Persian literature takes place between the 11th and 14th centuries, providing genres and forms (especially in poetry), themes and motifs that will largely influence not only writers of Iranian origin but also those of neighboring literatures, especially Ottoman Turkic and Hindustani (in Urdu language). Poets writing in Persian are traceable even in Ottoman-era Bosnia, from which, moreover, came the major commentator of Hāfez (or Hafis), the great Persian poet who-translated into German in the early 1800s-inspired Goethe's West-Oestlicher Divan. In medieval Persian poetry one finds themes such as the “journey of the soul” to the afterlife, which fuels a vast cycle of Islamic “divine comedies,” or such as that of love for a splendid “friend” with an ambiguous physiognomy, in whom one is sometimes given to see a symbol of the absolute, of the divine. Some genres, such as the novel in verse have conspicuous parallels in coeval European literature, sometimes even some indirect influence is assumed (e.g., between the 11th-century Vis and Rāmin of Gorgāni and the Tristan cycle). In short, one finds themes that have an obvious European pendant in medieval Romance and Germanic literatures. Numerous are the mystical poets, investigating the forms of spiritual initiation, as in the case of 'Attar or Rumi; but one also finds poets expressing a worldly, nonconformist spirit, often veined with a corrosive skepticism, a radical philosophy of “carpe diem,” as occurs in the case of the quatrains of the celebrated and multi-translated 'Omar Khayyām. The study of this literature, particularly its poetic expressions, can open up new and at the same time (partially) familiar horizons, which make us realize how the idea of a West strictly delimited by its Greco-Roman-Christian matrix is perhaps in need of a profound re-examination.

Readings/Bibliography

1. MONOGRAPHIES

Extensive reading of one of the following monographs.

- Carlo Saccone, Viaggi e visioni di re sufi e profeti. Storia tematica della letteratura persiana, vol. I, Luni, Trento-Milano 1999

- Carlo Saccone, Il maestro sufi e la bella cristiana. Poetica della perversione nella Persia medievale. Storia tematica della letteratura persiana, vol.II, Carocci, Roma 2005

- Carlo Saccone, Il re dei belli, il re del mondo. Teologia del potere e della bellezza nella Persia medievale. Storia tematica della letteratura persiana, vol.III, Aracne, Roma 2014

- Johann Christoph Buergel, "La parola è nave, il significato un mare. Saggi sull'amore e il viaggio nella poesia persiana medievale", a cura di C. Saccone, Carocci, Roma 2005

- Alessandro Bausani, La letteratura neopersiana, in Pagliaro A. - Bausani A, La letteratura persiana, Sansoni-Accademia, Firenze-Milano 1968

- Alessandro Bausani, Il pazzo sacro nell'Islam, a cura di M. Pistoso, Luni Ed., Milano-Trento 2000 (distribuito da Carocci Ed.)

- Nahid Norozi, Esordi del romanzo persiano. Dal Vis e Rāmin di Gorgāni (XI sec.) al ciclo di Tristano, con una premessa di F. Benozzo, Collana "Il cavaliere del leone", diretta da Andrea Fassò, Edizioni dell'Orso, Alessandria, 2022

 

2. TEXTS IN TRANSLATION.

Accurate reading of two texts in translation, chosen at will from the following classics and contemporary texts. N.B.: ONLY one text for students who have to take examinations under different names from Persian Literature 1 (i.e. Persian 1/Language and Persian Literature 1/Language and Culture).

 

A. classical works (in Italian translation)

in verse:

- Farid ad-din ‘Attār, Il verbo degli uccelli (Mantiq al-Tayr), a cura di C. Saccone, Centro Essad Bey-CreateSpace IPP, Charleston 2016 (libro distribuito da Amazon)

- Farid ad-din ‘Attār, Il poema celeste, a cura di M.T. Granata, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 1990

- Gorgāni, Dieci lettere di Vis a Rāmin sulla crudeltà, a cura di N. Norozi, Carocci, Roma 2022

- Sa‘di, Il Verziere (Bustān). Un manuale di saggezza morale e spirituale dalla Persia del ‘200, a cura di C. Saccone, Centro Essad Bey-Amazon, Seattle 2018

- Sanā‘i, Viaggio nel regno del ritorno, a cura di C. Saccone, Luni, Milano-Trento 1998 (prima ed. Pratiche Ed., 1993)

- Nezami, Leylà e Majnun, a cura di G. Calasso, Adelphi, Milano 1985

- Nezāmi, Le sette principesse, a cura di A. Bausani, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 1982

- Nezāmi, Il libro della fortuna di Alessandro, a cura di C. Saccone, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 1997

- Nezāmi, Khosrow e Shirin, a cura di D. Meneghini, Ariele, Milano 2017

- Nāser-e Khosrow, Il Libro della Luce (Rowshanā'i-nāme), Centro Essad Bey, Seattle 2017 (libro distribuito da Amazon)

- Rumi, Poesie mistiche, a cura di A. Bausani, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 1990

- Amir Khusrau di Delhi, Le otto novelle del paradiso, a cura di A.M. Piemontese, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 1996

- Amir Khusrau di Delhi, Lo specchio alessandrino, Rubbettino, a cura di A.M. Piemontese, Soveria Mannelli 1999

- ‘Abdallāh Hātefi, I sette scenari, a cura di M. Bernardini, Ist. Univ. Orientale, Napoli 1995

- Khwāju di Kerman, Homāy e Homāyun. Un romanzo d'amore e avventura dalla Persia medievale, a cura di N. Norozi, Mimesis, Milano 2016

- Shams al-Din Bardasiri, La lampada degli Spiriti. Viaggio attraverso le Otto Città dell’anima, a cura di C. Saccone, Centro Essad Bey- Amazon IP, Seattle, 2024

- Iqbāl Lāhuri, Il Poema Celeste, a cura di Alessandro Bausani, Leonardo da Vinci Ed., 1965

in prose:

- Kay Kā’us ibn Iskandar, Il libro dei consigli, a cura di R. Zipoli, Adelphi, Milano 1981

- Nizām al-Mulk, L'arte della politica, a cura di M. Pistoso, Luni Ed., Milano-Trento 1999

- Sa‘di, Il roseto (Golestān), San Paolo, a cura di C.M. Guzzetti, Cinisello Balsamo 1991 (reperibile anche in ed. Bollati Boringhieri, a cura di P. Filippini-Ronconi)

- ‘Obeyd Zākāni, Dissertazione letifica, a cura di G.M. D'Erme, Carocci, Roma 2005

- Shihāb al-din Y. Suhrawardi, Il fruscio delle ali di Gabriele, a cura di S. Foti, Mondadori, Milano 2008

- Ahmad Ghazali, Delle occasioni amorose, a cura di C. Saccone, Carocci, Roma 2007

- Sadid al-Din 'Awfi, Le gemme della memoria. Antologia del Jawāmi‘ al-hikāyāt wa lawāmi‘ al-riwāyāt, a cura di S. Pellò, Einaudi, Torino.

B. Contemporary works

- Sharnush Parsipur, Donne senza uomini, a cura di A. Vanzan, AIEP, San Marino 2000

- Simin Daneshvar, Suvashun, una storia persiana, a cura di Anna Vanzan, Brioschi ed., 2018

- Hamid Ziarati, Salam, maman, Einaudi, Torino 2006.

- Bijan Zarmandili, La grande casa di Monirrieh, Feltrinelli, Milano 2004

 

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars, listening to musical texts, possible lectures by invitation of specialists

Assessment methods

A student who attends at least 75% of the lectures is considered to be attending.

The test changes according to the course title:

A. The test, for students who have chosen the Persian Literature 1/Culture course, will be oral and will consist of two parts: 1. topics covered during the literature lessons (introduction to fiction and its themes and genres, etc.) + 2. in-depth study of two authors of the student's choice. See bibliography for both parts.

B. The test, for students who have chosen one of the following courses: Persian 1 (12 cfu, ARCO), Persian Language and Literature 1 (12 cfu, MA), Persian Language and Culture (10 cfu, SVIC), comprises two tests: 1. oral literary test for which see point A., but with only one chosen author (see bibliography); + 2. linguistic test consisting of two parts: a written language part (grammar exercises, translation, verb conjugation) and an oral part (correct reading of simple sentences, basic conversation and self-presentation, learned during the course of Persian Language and Linguistics Exercises). The final mark will result from the arithmetic mean of the marks obtained in the two tests.

C. The test, for students who have chosen Persian Language and Literature 1 (6 cfu) is as in B., but with one author less to be studied in depth for the examination (see bibliography)

 

The student's achievement of the ability to comment comprehensively on the selected texts, both linguistically and historically, and to express an organic view of the topics addressed in class with a good command of expression and specific language will be evaluated with marks of excellence.
A mnemonic knowledge of the subject, together with synthesis and analysis skills articulated in correct but not always appropriate language, will lead to fair grades.
Formative gaps and/or inappropriate language - albeit in the context of minimal knowledge of the examination material - will lead to grades that do not exceed sufficiency.
Formative gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials offered during the course will be negatively graded.

Teaching tools

Books, handouts, audio-visual media, magazine websites and other useful materials.

 

Students with DSA or temporary or permanent disabilities: it is advisable to get in touch immediately with the University office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it ) and with the lecturer, in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the exam. Any requests for adaptations must be made within 15 days of the date of the exam, by sending an email to the lecturer and entering the email address disabilita@unibo.it [mailto:disabilita@unibo.it] (in the case of a disabling condition) or dsa@unibo.it [mailto:dsa@unibo.it] (for students with DSA)."

Office hours

See the website of Nahid Norozi