Persianate Pasts; National Presents: Persian Literary and Cultural Production in the Twentieth Century (Special Issue)

Aria Fani and Schwartz, KL. Persianate Pasts; National Presents: Persian Literary and Cultural Production in the Twentieth Century (Special issue), Iranian Studies 55.3 (2022): 603-790.

Has the twentieth century rise of nation-states in the Persianate cosmopolis made the transregional Persianate world analytically irrelevant? Or do Persianate pasts endure in different ways in the modern period? The studies featured in the issue foreground the uneven and complex nature of this historical transition and locate the lingering presence of the Persianate in twentieth-century Afghanistan, Iran, India, the Soviet East, and the Caucasus. They neither take the nation-state as a teleological outcome, nor do they romanticize the premodern Persianate as an overarching system from Bosnia to Bengal. Ultimately, these contributions demonstrate how the Persianate was reconfigured in new guises both nationally and trans-nationally. It is our hope that this special topic opens windows for further inquiries into all subfields of Persianate studies including music, ethics, law, and beyond (Sussan Siavoshi's editorial note). 

To access this special issue, please click here. If you don't have institutional access, please email Aria Fani (ariafani@uw.edu) or Kevin Schwartz (schwartz@orient.cas.cz). The table of contents is attached to this post.

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