[caption id="attachment_54835" align="alig ncenter" width="620"]

Poster design by Farzan Kermani[/caption]

سلسله سخن رانی‌های ایران‌شناسی و فارسی‌پژوهی علیرضا احمدیان

هدیهٔ ناممکن معنا در داستان کوتاه مارهای زیر درخت سنجد، نوشتهٔ رهنورد زریاب

سخنران: دکتر حسام دهقانی، استادیار زبان و فرهنگ فارسی، دانشگاه بریتیش کلمبیا

طرف‌بحث: مجیب مهرداد، نویسنده و شاعر، کابل

محمداعظم رهنو رد زریاب (۱۳۲۳ - ۱۳۹۹) یکی از تأثیرگذارترین روشنفکران افغانستان امروزی و کل قلمروی زبان فارسی بود. تأثیر او در عرصه‌های روزنامه‌نگاری، ادبیات و نقد فر هنگی-سیاسی و مذهبی همواره نمایان است. او در داستان‌های کوتاه و رمان‌هایش از قدرت رئالیسم جادویی و فراواقع‌گرایی (سوررئالیسم) استفاده می‌کند تا خوانندگ انش را از قید و بندهایی رها کند که مردم خود او و به طور کلی مردمان حوزهٔ تم دنی زبان فارسی در درک نازل از وقایع با آن دست‌به‌گریبان‌اند. در این سخنرانی ، دکتر حسام دهقانی با اتکا به تعریف ژاک دریدا از «هدیه» و «هدیهٔ معنا» (la donation de sens)، نشان می‌دهد که رهنورد در آثارش، به ویژه در «مارهای زیر د رختان سنجد» چگونه به چنین مهمی دست می‌یابد.

https://youtu.be/lly6Um_T-BU

Th e Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies present: The I mpossible Gift of Sense in Rahnavard Zaryāb's “The Snakes Under the Silverb erry Trees” on June 18\, 2022.

Mohammad Azam Rahnavard Zaryāb (August 1944 – 10 December 2020) was one of the most influential intellectuals of the contemporary Afghanistan as well as the whole Persianate World. His imp act is forever manifested in the realms of journalism\, literature and Cult ural-political and religious criticism. In his short stories and novels\, h e uses the power of magical realism and surrealism to liberate his readers from the confines of the superficial understanding of the issues his people and the Persianate world in general are facing. He digs through multiple m odes of temporality and knit together past and future to give texture and c ontext to the sufferings of a people in a war-torn region. In this lecture\ , Dr. Hessam Dehghani alludes to Jacque Derrida's notion of "the gift" and "the gift of sense" (la donation de sens) to illustrate how Rahnav ard enacts such a feat in his work\, particularly in "The Snakes .....". He will provide some more evidence from his other essays and novels to corrob orate his account of this story as well.

Guest Speaker

Dr. Hessam Dehghani earned his first PhD in Linguistics from All ameh Tabātabāi University working on the Structural analysis and Phenom enological study of Persian Literature in 2012. He then earned another PhD in Philosophy from Boston College in 2019. Since then\, he has been a post-doctoral researcher and associate researcher at Harvard Divinity Schoo l and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies where he has researched about t he formation of the Persianate identity in Persian Mystic Literature. He ha s published a number of essays in Persian including Phenomenology of Po etry: Re-reading Ahmad Shamlou's poem "the walls". He has also present ed on different aspects of Persian mystic literature regularly at Harvard a nd Boston College.

Besides his research interest\, he has been teachi ng English as a foreign language in Iran\, and Persian and Arabic in North America for the past twenty years. Since 2012\, he has taught Persian and A rabic and directed Persian program single-handedly at Boston College for wh ich he received both teaching and leadership award from that institution. H e has recently started his tenure as an assistant professor of teaching Per sian language and Culture at UBC. In pedagogy\, his interests lie in materi al development and assessment for which he has passed multiple ACFTL worksh ops and received several certifications from 2013 up to present. He is pass ionate about implementing technology in classroom and developing a course b ook for Persian Students of 21st century.

Discussant

Mujib Mehrdad (poet\, playwright\, translator\; Afghanistan) is th e author of the poetry collections Gladiators Are Still Dying (200 7\; winner of the Afghan Civil Society’s literature contest)\, The Fish es Have Fled Our Veins (2008)\, and Audience (2009)\, and of the collection of essays The Rain Passed. He has translated Gi nsberg\, Plath\, Langston Hughes\, Mayakovsky\, Tagore\, and others\, into Dari. He is a board member of the literary organization Kashane Nawese ndagan [House of Authors] and teaches Persian literature at Albironi Univer sity in Kapisa.

About the Alireza Ahmadian Lectures in Iranian and Persianate Studies: Alireza Ahmadian (1981 – 2019) was an enthusiastic researcher\, a consummate socio-political analyst\, an d an opinion leader on foreign policy who nurtured the virtues of diplomati c dialogue and liberal democracy. Alireza was a proud and devoted UBC alumn us\, supporter of UBC’s Department of Asian Studies\, and beloved member of Canadian-Iranian Community. The department renamed this lecture series in his honour in 2019. Alireza’s friends in the community have provided fundin g to support this series\, and this generous gift will see these important academic and community engagement events supported through to the end of th e 2025/2026 academic year. Read More ...

Should you have any q uestions\, please contact the Department of Asian Studies at Asian.Studies@ubc.ca.