The e vent recording is now available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mksJ H9bAZF0&t=6s\;list=PLV4tCChJ7aFg8Txk3lD5FFVKM16CML0et&index=26
The Al ireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: “Two Hea rts / Two Solitudes”: Jahan Malek Khatun’s and Forugh Farrokhzad’s Proto-Fe minist Self-Defense in Medieval and Modern Iran on April 5\, 2024.
It
is not surprising that\, having lived six centuries apart\, Persian poet-p
rincess Jahan Malek Khatun (d. after 1382 CE) and modernist Iranian poet Fo
rugh Farrokhzad (1934-1967) have very few traits in common. Born into an ar
istocratic family that reigned in Shiraz until 1357 and which offered her t
he privilege of literacy and education in the same court where Hafez began
his career\, Jahan sought literary patronage under foreign rule and\, in he
r old age\, she completed what we regard today as the most important poetry
collection composed by a medieval Iranian woman.
Farrokhzad\, who rec
eived no formal literary training\, was raised between Mazandaran and Tehra
n in the bosom of a family that belonged to the emerging middle class on wh
ich Reza Shah Pahlavi heavily relied to advance Iran’s vertiginous process
of modernization. She published four collections of poetry\, made an arrest
ingly beautiful short film\, and died in a tragic car accident at the age o
f 32.
Jahan strove to respect the social prescriptions of medieval Shi
raz. In order to fulfill the homonormative aesthetic expectations of her ti
me\, she adopted in her lyric texts (ghazals) a male lyric persona
that expressed longing and desire for young men. Farrokhzad\, on the contr
ary\, imbued her modernist poetry with the celebration of heterosexual desi
re from the perspective of a woman who does not shy away from gazing upon t
he male body. Against all societal expectations\, she developed an approach
to the literary expression of sexuality that defies the boundaries of norm
ativity.
Despite such remarkable differences\, the two poets happened
to develop kindred lines of thought in two pieces of writing in which they
defend the right of women to write erotic poetry in a society dominated by
patriarchal values. This talk will present and compare these two exceptiona
lly lucid documents of self-defense\, which\, for different reasons\, are y
et to receive the critical attention they deserve. Moreover\, this comparat
ive approach will offer the opportunity to appreciate Jahan’s and Farrokhza
d’s poetry through the lens of female creative agency and beyond preconceiv
ed gender binaries.
Domenico Ingenito is the Associate Professor of Iranian Studies and premodern Persian Liter ature at the University of California\, Los Angeles\, Bahari Fellow in the Persian Arts of the Book (Bodleian Libraries\, University of Oxford)\, core faculty member of the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World \, and former director of the UCLA Program on Central Asia (2016-2021). His research interests center on ancient and medieval Iran\, Persian poetry\, visual culture of Iran and Central Asia\, gender and translations studies\, and premodern manuscript culture.
This event will be held in
-person. Light refreshments will be provided.
Registr
ation required. Register here: https://ubc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_e7862L
MUQ-62pBnzuXe4tA