Women Poets of Iran: 1797-1967

Starting at the dawn of the 19th century, this course will first examine the existing, indigenous tradition of women's poetry in Qajar Iran. The focus will then shift to the emergence of liberalist, modernist and proto-feminist poets in the early 20th century, culminating in the iconoclastic and distruptive figures of Simin Behbahani and Forugh Farrokhzad. The course will trace the emergence of a female voice in Persian poetry in the 19th and 20th centuries and, although focused on women, it will discuss the place within and contribution to the wider poetic scene in Iran by women in some of the most turbulent years in modern Iranian history.