What is it about?
This is a short reflective piece about the impact that thematic and generic labels can have in shaping how Persian literary texts might be introduced to new readers, critically analyzed, and put into dialogue with other works. Complications around term equivalency, text-centric vs. reader-centric approaches, 'foreignizing' vs. 'domesticating' framings, and linguistic hegemony form part of the discussion. My main idea is that, whenever we are invited to 'recognize' something in an unfamiliar work, we are implicitly also invited to re-think (re-cognize) the terms by which that recognition happened in the first place.
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Photo by Faruk Kaymak on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Put simply, the way we talk about a piece of art will have a big impact on how we read it! There is no one right way to do it, but different approaches will have different effects.
Perspectives
This was a bittersweet article to write, as it was in memory of my late teacher, Franklin Lewis. But it brought me great joy to revisit his love for music, and the way that passion found its way into the way he taught me Persian literature.
Cameron Cross
University of Michigan
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Recognize, Re-cognize: Theme and Genre in Teaching Persian Literature, July 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004513129_015.
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