Persian Prose

This 1966 book provides a series of concise, accessible essays reflecting on the development of Persian fiction during the modern period. The structure of the text is broadly chronological, with chapters allocated to key authors, literary movements, and social changes. This is a valuable volume for anyone interested in Persian literature.

Volume V of A History of Persian Literature presents a broad survey of Persian prose: from biographical, historiographical, and didactic prose, to scientific manuals and works of popular prose fiction. It analyzes the rhetorical devices employed by writers in different periods in their philosophical and political discourse; or when their aim is primarily to entertain rather than to instruct , the chapters describe different techniques used to transform old stories and familiar tales into novel versions to entice their audience. Many of the texts in prose cited in the volume share a wealth of common lore and literary allusions with Persian poetry. Prose and poetry frequently appear on the same page in tandem. In different ways, therefore, this creative interplay demonstrates the perennial significance of intertextuality, from the earliest times to the present; and help us in the process to further our understanding and enhance our enjoyment of Persian literature in its different manifestations throughout history

Originally published in 1966, this book forms the companion volume to A Modern Persian Prose Reader (Cambridge, 1968). It provides a series of concise, accessible essays reflecting on the development of Persian fiction during the modern period. The structure of the text is broadly chronological, with chapters allocated to key authors, literary movements, and social changes. A long second section is devoted to the work of Sadeq Hidayat (1903-1951), regarded by many as Iran's foremost writer of prose fiction and short stories. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in Persian literature.

This volume of Persian language texts contains representative passages from the works of major Persian writers.

CONTRIBUTORS -- INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER 1: A MEDIEVAL NEXUS: LOCATING ENSHA' AND ITS ONTOLOGY IN THE PERSIANATE INTELLECTUAL TRADITION, 1000?1500 (Colin Mitchell) CHAPTER 2: ADVICE LITERATURE (Louise Marlow) -- CHAPTER 3: RES℗LE, MAQ℗LE, AND KET℗B: AN OVERVIEW OF PERSIAN EXPOSITORY AND ANALYTICAL PROSE (Ali Gheissari) -- CHAPTER 4: SCIENCE IN PERSIAN (Ziva Vesel in collaboration with Sonja Brentjes) -- CHAPTER 5: CALLIGRAPHY (Francis Richard) -- CHAPTER 6: CONSIDERATIONS ON LITERARY ASPECTS OF PERSIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY (Bert Fragner) -- CHAPTER 7: BIOGRAPHICAL WRITING: TADHKERE AND MAN℗QEB (Paul Losensky) -- CHAPTER 8: STORIES AND TALES: ENTERTAINMENT AS LITERATURE (Mehran Afshari) -- CHAPTER 9: POPULAR ANECDOTES AND SATIRE (Mehran Afshari) -- CHAPTER 10: THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PERSIAN PROSE: FROM THE NINETEENTH TO THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY (Iraj Parsinejad) -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INDEX.

Persian Literature and Modernity recasts the history of modern literature in Iran by elucidating the bonds between the classical tradition and modernity and exploring textual, generic and discursive formations through heterodoxical investigations. This is first done through the rehabilitation of concepts embedded in tradition, including the munāzirah (debate), Ahrīman (the demonic), tajarrud (radical aloneness) and nāriz̤āyatī (discontent). Following this are broader structural and processual treatments, including the emergence of the genre of the social novel, the international dimension of Persian and Persianate canon formation, and the development of salvage ethnography and anthropological discourse in Iran. Covering literary experiments from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries, the chapters in this volume make a case for stepping outside the bounds of orthodox literary scholarship in Iranian studies with its associated political and orientalist determinants in order to provide a more nuanced conception of literary modernity in Iran. Offering an alternative reading of modernity in Persian literature, this book is an invaluable resource for scholars and students interested in the history of modern Iran and Persian Literature.

This volume contains thirty-five translations of Persian poetry, arranged in five groups as well as two examples of prose translations from Arabic, which offer examples of âe~rhymed proseâe(tm) of which the earliest examples are to be found in the Koran. To help the reader, a substantial introduction on Persian poetry is included, as well as a personal memoir of the author by J B Atkins.