Persian Literary Journals

Aria Fani
Near Eastern Studies
UC Berkeley

This research is part of a dissertation project entitled “Creating Persian Literature: Sites of Power and Literary Production in Twentieth-century Iran and Afghanistan (1860-1960).” It examines the process through which the Persian literary​ ​tradition​ ​was​ ​institutionalized​ ​in​ ​Iran​ ​and​ ​Afghanistan​ ​in​ ​the​ ​1930s,​ ​1940s​ ​and​ ​1950s. The dissertation analyzes the way the notion of literature, as it was forged in the late nineteenth century in Iran and Afghanistan, rigidly governs the way we receive and relate to Persian literary oeuvres today. Much of the intellectual heavy lifting of forming a Persian literary canon may have taken place in the early decades of the twentieth century, but its outcome – in the form of key concepts and categories that it has created – persists today in the way Persian literature is promoted and studied by non-governmental cultural​ ​institutions​ ​and​ ​faculties​ ​of​ ​letters​ ​alike.