Aria Fani, "Reading Across Borders: Afghans, Iranians, and Literary Nationalism" (U Texas Press, 2024)

About this episode

Aria Fani discusses how Afghans and Iranians shaped their modern identities through literature and cultural exchange in the 20th century.

The dynamic and interconnected ways Afghans and Iranians invented their modern selves through literature. Contrary to the presumption that literary nationalism in the Global South emerged through contact with Europe alone, Reading Across Borders: Afghans, Iranians, and Literary Nationalism (University of Texas Press, 2024) demonstrates how the cultural forms of Iran and Afghanistan as nation-states arose from their shared Persian heritage and cross-cultural exchange in the twentieth century. In this book, Aria Fani charts the individuals, institutions, and conversations that made this exchange possible, detailing the dynamic and interconnected ways Afghans and Iranians invented their modern selves through new ideas about literature. Fani illustrates how voluntary and state-funded associations of readers helped formulate and propagate "literature" as a recognizable notion, adapting and changing Persian concepts to fit this modern idea. Focusing on early twentieth-century periodicals with readers in Afghan and Iranian cities and their diaspora, Fani exposes how nationalism intensified—rather than severed—cultural contact among two Persian-speaking societies amidst the diverging and…

People in this episode

Guest: Aria Fani

Topics covered

• literary nationalism
• cultural exchange
• Persian heritage
• Afghan literature
• Iranian literature
• national identity
• 20th century history

Keywords

• literature
• nationalism
• Iran
• Afghanistan
• Persian
• cultural contact
• 20th century
• identity
• periodicals

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Texas Press, University of Washington

Books & works: Reading Across Borders: Afghans, Iranians, and Literary Nationalism

Places: Iran, Afghanistan

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