Imagine a Nation: Six Persian Poets in Search of a Homeland [Hardcover]

From Ferdowsi to Rumi and Hafiz, poetry has played a central role in the historical Iranian cultural imagination.How have contemporary poets contributed to this imagining of a nation, in the context of the twentieth century and its momentous events?

In this book, Hamid Dabashi interrogates the oeuvre of six major poets: Nima Yushij (1895-1960), Mehdi Akhavan-e Sales (1929-1990), Ahmad Shamlou (1925-2000) Forough Farrokhzad (1934-1967), Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980) and finally Esmail Khoi (1938-2021). Reading their works in the context of Iranian political history, from the Constitutional Revolution to the Iranian Revolution and beyond, he interprets their poetry as exercises in imagining an Iran that was still emerging and being contested. Providing an original theoretical and critical interpretation of modern Iran's most well-known poets, based on his own translations from the Persian originals, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Persian literature and Iranian studies.

A critical and theoretical interpretation of six major modern Persian poets and the idea of a homeland, by Hamid DabashiHamid Dabashiis Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, USA. He is the author of over 25 books and focuses on the social and intellectual history of Iran and Islam, both classical and contemporary. Among his most recent books areReversing the Colonial Gaze: Persian Travelers Abroad(2019),The Last Muslim Intellectual: The Life and Legacy of Jalal Al-e Ahmad(2021), andAn Iranian Childhood: Rethinking History and Memory(2023). He is a prominent commentator on global affairs, writing regularly forAl Jazeera, Middle East Eye, and other news outlets.

Hamid Dabashi'sImagine a Nation: Six Persian Poets in Search of a Homelandis a much-neededtour de force,which breathes life into the greatest poets of twentieth-century Iran with a vision lӷ