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 University
Opening Remarks

Alexander Matthew Key, Stanford University
Conceptual 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 Virginia
The 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 University
Poetic Designs: Gharaz as a Critical Concept in Mohtasham Kashani’s “Lovers’ Confection”

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

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

Faculty and students only.  Registration required.