Reorienting Modernism in Arabic and Persian Poetry

Comparatively studies, through both form and content, the development of Arabic and Persian modernist poetry during the mid-twentieth century.

This book situates Arabic and Persian poetries in relation to each other and to the development of modernism as a global phenomenon. Academics interested in Arabic and Persian literatures or in the concept of world literature will find a compelling case for studying Arabic and Persian modernist poetries comparatively.Re-orienting Modernism in Arabic and Persian Poetry is the first book to systematically study the parallel development of modernist poetry in Arabic and Persian. It presents a fresh line of comparative inquiry into minor literatures within the field of world literary studies. Focusing on Arabic-Persian literary exchanges allows readers to better understand the development of modernist poetry in both traditions and in turn challenge Europe's position at the center of literary modernism. The argument contributes to current scholarly efforts to globalize modernist studies by reading Arabic and Persian poetry comparatively within the context of the Cold War to establish the Middle East as a significant participant in wider modernist developments. To illuminate profound connections between Arabic and Persian modernist poetry in both form and content, the book takes up works from key poets including the Iraqis Badr Shakir al-Sayyab and Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati and the Iranians Nima Yushij, Ahmad Shamlu, and Forough Farrokhzad.