Pearl of Dari - Poetry and Personhood Among Young Afghans in Iran

The Pearl of Dari takes us into the heart of Afghan refugee life in the Islamic Republic of Iran through a rich ethnographic portrait of the circle of poets and intellectuals who make up the "Pearl of Dari" cultural organization. Dari is the name by which the Persian language is known in Afghanistan. Afghan immigrants in Iran, refugees from the Soviet war in Afghanistan, are marginalized and restricted to menial jobs and lower-income neighborhoods. Ambitious and creative refugee youth have taken to writing poetry to tell their story as a group and to improve their prospects for a better life. At the same time, they are altering the ancient tradition of Persian love poetry by promoting greater individualism in realms such as gender and marriage. Zuzanna Olszewska offers compelling insights into the social life of poetry in an urban, Middle Eastern setting largely unknown in the West.

List of contents

Preface

A Note on the Translations, Transliteration, and Dates

Introduction

1. Border Crossings and Fractured Selves: A History of the Afghan Presence in Iran

2. The Melancholy Modern: The Rise of a Refugee Intelligentsia

3. Afghan Literary Organizations in Post-revolutionary Iran

4. The Social Lives of Poets and Poetry

5. Modern Love: Poetry, Companionate Marriage and Recrafting the Self

6. "When Your Darun Speaks to You": Ethics of Revelation and Concealment in Lyric Poetry

Conclusion

Epilogue

About the author

Zuzanna Olszewska is Associate Professor in the Social Anthropology of the Middle East at the University of Oxford.

Product details

• Authors: Zuzanna Olszewska, Olszewska Zuzanna
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2015
• EAN: 9780253017529
• ISBN: 978-0-253-01752-9
• No. of pages: 280
• Series: Public Cultures of the Middle; Public Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa; Public Cultures of the Middle
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); Zentralasien, Asiatische Geschichte, Literatur: Geschichte und Kritik, Archaeology / Anthropology, LITERARY CRITICISM / Middle Eastern, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, HISTORY / Asia / Central Asia