28740 - Persian Language and Literature I (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is broadly familiar with the origins and development of Neo-Persian literature of the early centuries, both in relation to the Arabic and ancient-Iranian heritage and to the historical and cultural context of Muslim Iran. In particular, the student becomes familiar, including through the proposal and commentary of examples in translation, with the main poetic genres (qaside, ghazal, quatrain, mathnavi) and deepens the relationship between poetry and Islamic mysticism or Sufism.

Course contents

IMPORTANT NOTE 

A. Students who have chosen one of the following examinations: Persiano 1 (12 cfu, ARCO), Lingua e Letteratura Persiana 1 (12 cfu, Master's degree), Lingua e Cultura Persiana (10 cfu, SVIC) are required to take the first part of Esercitazioni di Lingua e Linguistica Persiana 1, i.e. ONLY from 27 September to December, Dr. Negar Abbasi (the textbook used in class is: N. Norozi and N. Abbasi Boroujeni, Lezioni di Persiano per Principianti, Centro Essad Bey - Amazon IP, Seattle, 2024); in addition to ‘Letteratura Persiana 1'.

PLEASE NOTE: students who are interested in a thesis on Persian studies and those who are interested in pursuing the study of the language are also strongly encouraged to take the ‘Lingua e Linguistica Persiana 1’ course, taught in the second semester (10 February - 21 March 2025) by Prof. Nahid Norozi (see link: https://www.unibo.it/it/studiare/dottorati-master-specializzazioni-e-altra-formazione/insegnamenti/insegnamento/2024/458713).

B. INSTEAD, students who have chosen the examination of Lingua e Letteratura Persiana 1A (6 cfu, Master's degree) are required to take ONLY the introductory part of Letteratura Persiana 1, in addition to the first part of the Esercitazioni di Lingua e Linguistica Persiana 1 (i.e. ONLY from 27 September to December, Dr. Negar Abbasi).


COURSE SYLLABUS

The “Persian Literature 1” course is divided into two sections:

- an introductory section that aims to outline medieval Persian literature, with special attention to the main poetic genres; typology of literary production especially in relation to mystically inspired poetry; the ghazal: forms and development of the genre, with nods to the ghazal form in contemporary times; annotated reading of excerpts from various Persian lyric poems of the classical and contemporary periods; the mathnavì (narrative poems) with special attention to the verse novel.

- a monographic section including in-depth reading of the works of the following contemporary authors: Simin Behbahani, Ahmad Shamlu and Sohrab Sepehri, with a special reference to the context of twentieth-century Persian poetry and the classical legacy.

WHY STUDY PERSIAN LITERATURE?
Classical Persian literature takes place between the 11th and 14th centuries, providing genres and forms (especially in poetry), themes and motifs that will largely influence not only writers of Iranian origin but also those of neighboring literatures, especially Ottoman Turkic and Hindustani (in Urdu language). Poets writing in Persian are traceable even in Ottoman-era Bosnia, from which, moreover, came the major commentator of Hāfez (or Hafis), the great Persian poet who-translated into German in the early 1800s-inspired Goethe's West-Oestlicher Divan. In medieval Persian poetry one finds themes such as the “journey of the soul” to the afterlife, which fuels a vast cycle of Islamic “divine comedies,” or such as that of love for a splendid “friend” with an ambiguous physiognomy, in whom one is sometimes given to see a symbol of the absolute, of the divine. Some genres, such as the novel in verse have conspicuous parallels in coeval European literature, sometimes even some indirect influence is assumed (e.g., between the 11th-century Vis and Rāmin of Gorgāni and the Tristan cycle). In short, one finds themes that have an obvious European pendant in medieval Romance and Germanic literatures. Numerous are the mystical poets, investigating the forms of spiritual initiation, as in the case of 'Attar or Rumi; but one also finds poets expressing a worldly, nonconformist spirit, often veined with a corrosive skepticism, a radical philosophy of “carpe diem,” as occurs in the case of the quatrains of the celebrated and multi-translated 'Omar Khayyām. The study of this literature, particularly its poetic expressions, can open up new and at the same time (partially) familiar horizons, which make us realize how the idea of a West strictly delimited by its Greco-Roman-Christian matrix is perhaps in need of a profound re-examination.

Readings/Bibliography

1. MONOGRAPHIES

Extensive reading of one of the following monographs. The second one is recommended, particularly for non-attending students:

- C. Saccone, Viaggi e visioni di re sufi e profeti. Storia tematica della letteratura persiana, vol. I, Luni, Trento-Milano 1999

- C. Saccone, Il maestro sufi e la bella cristiana. Poetica della perversione nella Persia medievale. Storia tematica della letteratura persiana, vol.II, Carocci, Roma 2005

- C. Saccone, Il re dei belli, il re del mondo. Teologia del potere e della bellezza nella Persia medievale. Storia tematica della letteratura persiana, vol.III, Aracne, Roma 2014

- J.C. Buergel, La parola è nave, il significato un mare. Saggi sull'amore e il viaggio nella poesia persiana medievale, a cura di C. Saccone, Carocci, Roma 2005

- A. Bausani, La letteratura neopersiana, in Pagliaro A. - Bausani A, La letteratura persiana, Sansoni-Accademia, Firenze-Milano 1968

- A. Bausani, Il pazzo sacro, a cura di M. Pistoso, Luni Ed., Milano-Trento 2000 (distribuito da Carocci Ed.)

- N. Norozi, “La mia spada e la poesia”. Versi di lotta e d’amore nella poetessa persiana Simin Behbahāni (poesie tradotte e commentate con gli originali in appendice, talora recitate in Qcode), WriteUp Books (“Ferdows. Collana di Studi iranici e islamici”), Roma 2023.

2. TEXTS IN TRANSLATION.

Thorough reading of two texts in translation, chosen at will from the following classics and contemporaries (Note: ONLY one text for students taking this exam: Lingua e Letteratura Persiana 1A (6 cfu).

A. Classical works (in Italian translation)

POETRY:

- Farid ad-din ‘Attār, Il verbo degli uccelli (Mantiq al-Tayr), a cura di C. Saccone, Centro Essad Bey-CreateSpace IPP, Charleston 2016 (libro distribuito da Amazon)

- Farid ad-din ‘Attār, La rosa e l’usignuolo, a cura di C. Saccone, Carocci, Roma 2003

- Farid ad-din ‘Attār, Il poema celeste, a cura di M.T. Granata, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 1990

- Gorgāni, Dieci lettere di Vis a Rāmin sulla crudeltà, a cura di N. Norozi, Carocci, Roma 2022

- Hāfez, Coppiere di Dio, (con i testi persiani in appendice) a cura di C. Saccone, Centro Essad Bey Amazon IP, Seattle 2019

- Sa‘di, Il Verziere (Bustān). Un manuale di saggezza morale e spirituale dalla Persia del ‘200, a cura di C. Saccone, Centro Essad Bey-Amazon, Seattle 2018

- Sa‘di, Il roseto (Golestān), San Paolo, a cura di C.M. Guzzetti, Cinisello Balsamo 1991 (reperibile anche in ed. Bollati Boringhieri, a cura di P. Filippini-Ronconi)

- Sa‘di, L’argento di un povero cuore. 101 ghazal di Sa‘di Shirāzi, a cura di S. Manoukian, Ist. Cult. Della Rep. Isl. d'Iran, Roma 1991

- Sanā‘i, Viaggio nel regno del ritorno, a cura di C. Saccone, Luni, Milano-Trento 1998 (prima ed. Pratiche Ed., 1993)

- ‘Omar Khayyām, Quartine, a cura di A. Bausani, Einaudi, Torino 1956 (ristampa recente, oppure in ed. Newton Compton, a cura di F. Gabrieli, Roma 1973)

- Nezami, Leylà e Majnun, a cura di G. Calasso, Adelphi, Milano 1985

- Nezāmi, Le sette principesse, a cura di A. Bausani, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 1982

- Nezāmi, Il libro della fortuna di Alessandro, a cura di C. Saccone, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 1997

- Nezāmi, Khosrow e Shirin, a cura di D. Meneghini, Ariele, Milano 2017

- Nāser-e Khosrow, Il Libro della Luce (Rowshanā'i-nāme), Centro Essad Bey, Seattle 2017 (libro distribuito da Amazon)

- Rumi, Poesie mistiche, a cura di A. Bausani, BUR-Rizzoli, Milano 1990

- Rumi, Canto d'amore per Dio, a cura di M. T. Cerrato, Gribaudi, Torino 1995 

- Amir Khusrau di Delhi, Le otto novelle del paradiso, a cura di A.M. Piemontese, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 1996

- Amir Khusrau di Delhi, Lo specchio alessandrino, Rubbettino, a cura di A.M. Piemontese, Soveria Mannelli 1999

- ‘Abdallāh Hātefi, I sette scenari, a cura di M. Bernardini, Ist. Univ. Orientale, Napoli 1995

- Khwāju di Kerman, Homāy e Homāyun. Un romanzo d'amore e avventura dalla Persia medievale, a cura di N. Norozi, Mimesis, Milano 2016

- Mahsati Ganjavi, La luna e le perle, a cura di R. Bargigli e D. Meneghini, Ariele Ed., Milano 1999

- Nasimi di Shirvan, Nel tuo volto è scritta la Parola di Dio. Il canzoniere persiano del poeta-martire dell’Hurufismo, Centro Essad Bey-Amazon, Seattle 2020

- Sarmad di Kashan, Dio ama la bellezza del mio peccato, a cura di C. Saccone, Centro Essad Bey-Amazon IP, Seattle 2022

- R. Bargigli (a cura), I poeti della pleiade ghaznavide [Farrokhi, ‘Onsori, Manuchehri], Ariele Ed., Milano 1995

- Shams al-Din Bardasiri, La lampada degli Spiriti. Viaggio attraverso le Otto Città dell’anima, a cura di C. Saccone, Centro Essad Bey- Amazon IP, Seattle, 2024

PROSE:

- Kay Kā’us ibn Iskandar, Il libro dei consigli, a cura di R. Zipoli, Adelphi, Milano 1981

- Nizām al-Mulk, L'arte della politica, a cura di M. Pistoso, Luni Ed., Milano-Trento 1999

- ‘Obeyd Zākāni, Dissertazione letifica, a cura di G.M. D'Erme, Carocci, Roma 2005

- Shihāb al-din Y. Suhrawardi, Il fruscio delle ali di Gabriele, a cura di S. Foti, Mondadori, Milano 2008

- Ahmad Ghazali, Delle occasioni amorose, a cura di C. Saccone, Carocci, Roma 2007

B. Contemporary poetry:

- Abbas Kiarostami, Un lupo in agguato, Einaudi, 2003

- Sohrāb Sepehri, Sino al fiore del nulla. 99 poesie (con testi a fronte), a cura di N. Norozi, Centro Essad Bey, (libro - Edizioni CreateSpace IPP), 2016

- Nahid Norozi, Il cavallo selvaggio dell’ira. Introduzione all’opera di Ahmad Shāmlu, poeta ribelle del ‘900 persiano, (con ampia antologia) prefazione di Maurizio Pistoso, Centro Essad Bey (Collana "Kharabat"), Charleston 2017 (libro - Edizioni CreateSpace IPP)

- Forugh Farrokhzad, È solo la voce che resta, a cura di F. Mardani, Riccardo Condò Editore, Roma 2018

- N. Norozi, “La mia spada e la poesia”. Versi di lotta e d’amore nella poetessa persiana Simin Behbahāni (poesie tradotte e commentate con gli originali in appendice, talora recitate in Qcode), WriteUp Books (“Ferdows. Collana di Studi iranici e islamici”), Roma 2023

 

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars, listening to musical texts, possible lectures by invitation of specialists

Assessment methods

A student who attends at least 75% of the lectures is considered to be attending.

The test changes according to the course title:

A. The test, for students who have chosen the course named Persian Literature 1/Culture and Persian Literature 1, will be oral and will consist of two topics: 1. topics covered during the literature lessons (introduction to poetry and its themes and genres, etc.) + 2. in-depth study of two authors of free choice. See bibliography for both parts.

B. The test, for students who have chosen one of the following courses: Persian 1 (12 cfu, ARCO), Persian Language and Literature 1 (12 cfu, MA), Persian Language and Culture (10 cfu, SVIC), comprises two tests: 1. literary test in oral mode for which see above (point A. ); + 2. linguistic test consisting of two parts: a written language part (grammar exercises, translation, verb conjugation) and an oral part (correct reading of simple sentences and basic conversation: self-presentation learned during the Persian Language and Linguistics Exercise course). The final mark will result from the arithmetic mean of the marks obtained in the two tests.

C. The test, for students who have chosen Persian Language and Literature 1 (6 cfu) is as in B., but with one author less to be studied in depth for the examination (see bibliography)

The student's achievement of the ability to comment comprehensively on the selected texts, both linguistically and historically, and to express an organic view of the topics addressed in class with a good command of expression and specific language will be evaluated with marks of excellence.
A mnemonic knowledge of the subject, together with synthesis and analysis skills articulated in correct but not always appropriate language, will lead to fair grades.
Formative gaps and/or inappropriate language - albeit in the context of minimal knowledge of the examination material - will lead to grades that do not exceed sufficiency.
Formative gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials offered during the course will be negatively graded.

Teaching tools

Books, handouts, audio-visual media, magazine websites and other useful materials.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students.

Office hours

See the website of Nahid Norozi