A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic (Oxford Oriental Monographs)

A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic offers, for the first time, an original, timely examination of the pivotal role poetry plays in policy, power and political legitimacy in modern-day Iran. Through a compelling chronological and thematic framework, Shams presents fresh insights into the emerging lexicon of coercion and unrest in the modern Persian canon. Analysis of the lives and work of ten key poets traces the evolution of the Islamic Republic, from the 1979 Revolution, through to the Iran-Iraq War, the death of a leader and the rise of internal conflicts. Ancient forms jostle against didactic ideologies, exposing the complex relationship between poetry, patronage and literary production in authoritarian regimes, shedding light on a crucial area of discourse that has been hitherto overlooked.ISBN : 9780198858829 Cover A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Contents List of Abbreviations Note on Transliteration and Translation Consonants Vowels Other Rules Introduction: “Awakening the Nation”: Poetry and Power in Modern Iran The Origins of Poetry and Patronage in Iran The Label of “Official Literature”: Advantages and Limitations The Question of Literary Merit Existing Scholarship and Its Limitations Mapping Poetic Continuity and Rupture: A Conceptual Framework The Structure of the Book Poetry and the 1979 Revolution Chapter 1: Rethinking the Islamic Republican Canon Two Generations, Ten Poets The First Generation Second Generation Unravelling the Ethics of a Canon Chapter 2: “Surgery of the Soul”: Introducing the Howzeh The Beginnings of Cultural Control The Birth of the Howzeh Co-option into the State Ideological Apparatus Following the Rival’s Fashion A Jostle for Control and the Removal of Thought The Absence of Creative Integrity A Sinister Side to State Control One Voice, Many Writers The Upswing in Official Poetry Chapter 3: Returning to the Roots: The Dark and Light of the Village The Political Motive for Nostalgia Defining the Village Politicizing the Village The Role of the Rural Revolutionary The “Official” Village: The “Gaze that Tastes of Milk” “Machine-Made Bread” “Simple, Like a Village”: The Rise of a Rustic Utopia From Noble Peasant to Migrant Margin-Dweller The Fading Village Reviving the Village The Danger of Collective Greenwashing Chapter 4: A War to Remember (1): Decoding the Poetic Violence of War Origins of “Devotional” Combative Poetics Devotional Militant Poetic Forms Origins of the Mystic-Combative Poetics The Mystification of Death In Search of a Different Cure Chapter 5: A War to Remember (2): The Other Face of War Writing in the Warzone Writing in the War-Scarred Streets Writing in a Wounded Alphabet Writing against a Common Enemy Writing for the Children of War Writing the Real Message of War Chapter 6: Loss and Nostalgia: Official Poetry in Post-War Chaos The Devastation of War, the Balm of Nostalgia The Loss of the State Patriarch The Loss of Utopia and the Rise of Protest Poetry The Rise of the Reform Movement: Re-envisioning the Self, Religion, and Ideology Chapter 7: Inventing a Courtly Tradition: Poetry and Power in Khamenei’s Islamic Republic Passing the Poetry Baton From Bookworm to the Ruling Ayatollah The Search for Political Legitimacy: Poetry as a New Form of Political Covenant Instating a New Courtly Poetic Tradition Annual Poetry Ceremonies and the Poetics of Conversion Official Poets and the Question of Social Mobility Characteristics of Official Verse Searching the Past to Rule the Present An “Imagined” Iran and the Power of a Panegyric Ode Selected Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic tells the story of the lives and works of Iranian poets whose personal and literary career were shaped by the Iranian revolution in 1979. By drawing on similar examples, such as Soviet Russia, the book tries to tackle some key questions: how did these poets come to be known in the literary scene? What did they write about, and what were their ideas, styles, and literary techniques? And, last but not least, what kind of relationship have they established with the ruling power on the course of the past four decades? In a detailed study, Shams tackles the life and work of ten Iranian poets whose personal and literary lives transformed and were transformed by the 1979 Revolution and the rise of the Islamic Republic, shedding light on ways in which the current ruling state in Iran uses literature and particularly poetry as a tool for ideological dissemination "A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic offers, for the first time, an original, timely examination of the pivotal role poetry plays in policy, power and political legitimacy in modern-day Iran. Through a compelling chronological and thematic framework, Shams presents fresh insights into the emerging lexicon of coercion and unrest in the modern Persian canon. Analysis of the lives and work of ten key poets traces the evolution of the Islamic Republic, from the 1979 Revolution, through to the Iran-Iraq War, the death of a leader and the rise of internal conflicts. Ancient forms jostle against didactic ideologies, exposing the complex relationship between poetry, patronage and literary production in authoritarian regimes, shedding light on a crucial area of discourse that has been hitherto overlooked."-- Publisher website