Persian Poetics

At the interface of Self and Other, what theories of the lyric subject are elaborated in Persian literature, both medieval and modern? What are the philosophical foundations underlying discussions of poetic practice and how do these practices in turn affect our understanding of an individual poetics? Is there a point where poetics turns into ethics? And how do we, as members of the Western academy, justify our critical practice with regard to a tradition to which we are, in essence, peripheral?

Morning Session – 10am-12pm

Chair: Lorenzo Bartolucci, Stanford University

Marie Huber, Stanford UniversityOpening Remarks

Alexander Matthew Key, Stanford UniversityConceptual Translation, Aesthetics, and Taxonomy

Domenico Arturo Ingenito, UCLA“When ‘mental contents’ go adrift”: Sa'di's lyric subject, Avicennian psychology, and the internal senses

Jane Mikkelson, University of VirginiaThe Lyric Interim is Full of Color: A Premodern Persian Theory of Poetry

Afternoon Session – 3pm-5pm

Chair: Maria Florence Massucco, Stanford University

Paul Losensky, Indiana UniversityPoetic Designs: Gharaz as a Critical Concept in Mohtasham Kashani’s “Lovers’ Confection”

Prashant Keshavmurthy, McGill UniversityThe Brahman: Xenology in Amīr Khusrow’s Alexandrine Mirror

Vincent Barletta, Stanford UniversityRhythm is Black: Forough Farrokhzad and the Overrunning River of Sound

Faculty and students only.  Registration required.