PERS

This sequence concentrates on all skills of language acquisition (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). The class begins with the Persian alphabet, and moves to words, phrases, short sentences, and finally short paragraphs. The goal is to enable the students towards the end of the sequence to read, understand, and translate simple texts in modern standard Persian and engage in short everyday conversations. All the basic grammatical structures are covered in this sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture through the texts is also a goal. The class meets four hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence concentrates on all skills of language acquisition (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). The class begins with the Persian alphabet, and moves to words, phrases, short sentences, and finally short paragraphs. The goal is to enable the students towards the end of the sequence to read, understand, and translate simple texts in modern standard Persian and engage in short everyday conversations. All the basic grammatical structures are covered in this sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture through the texts is also a goal. The class meets four hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence deepens and expands the students' knowledge of modern Persian at all levels of reading, writing and speaking. Grammar will be taught at a higher level and a wider vocabulary will enable the students to read stories, articles and poetry and be introduced to examples of classical literature towards the end of the sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture will be continued. Class meets three hours a week with the instructor and (with enough students) two hours with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence deepens and expands the students' knowledge of modern Persian at all levels of reading, writing and speaking. Grammar will be taught at a higher level and a wider vocabulary will enable the students to read stories, articles and poetry and be introduced to examples of classical literature towards the end of the sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture will be continued. Class meets three hours a week with the instructor and (with enough students) two hours with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence deepens and expands the students' knowledge of modern Persian at all levels of reading, writing and speaking. Grammar will be taught at a higher level and a wider vocabulary will enable the students to read stories, articles and poetry and be introduced to examples of classical literature towards the end of the sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture will be continued. Class meets three hours a week with the instructor and (with enough students) two hours with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence concentrates on modern written Persian as well as modern colloquial usage. Towards the end of the sequence the students will be able to read, write and speak Persian at an elementary level. Introducing the Iranian culture is also a goal. The class meets three hours a week with the instructor and two hours with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence deepens and expands the students' knowledge of modern Persian at all levels of reading, writing and speaking. Grammar will be taught at a higher level and a wider vocabulary will enable the students to read stories, articles and poetry and be introduced to examples of classical literature towards the end of the sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture will be continued. Class meets three hours a week with the instructor and (with enough students) two hours with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence concentrates on modern written Persian as well as modern colloquial usage. Towards the end of the sequence the students will be able to read, write and speak Persian at an elementary level. Introducing the Iranian culture is also a goal. The class meets three hours a week with the instructor and two hours with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

The Shahnameh, the Persian "Book of Kings," is generally classed as an epic or national epic. While it does not lack for battling champions and heroic saga, it also includes episodes in a variety of disparate genres and themes: creation narrative, mythology, folk tale, romance, royal chronicle, and political history.
In this course we gain familiarity with the style and language of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh by slow reading and discussion of select episodes in Persian, in tandem with a reading of the whole text in English translation. We approach the work as a foundational text of Iranian identity,; compendium of pre-Islamic mythology and lore; a centrifugal axis of Persianate civilization and Iranian monarchical tradition throughout Anatolia, Central Asia and South Asia; and as an instance of "world literature." We will read with an eye toward literary structure; genre; Indo-Iranian mythology; political theory and commentary; character psychology; ideals of masculinity, femininity and heroism; the interaction of text, oral tradition, illustration, scholarship, and translation in the shaping of the literary reception of the Shahnameh; and, of course, the meaning(s) of the work. We also address wider issues of textual scholarship: the sources of the Shahnameh, the scribal transmission of Ferdowsi’s text, and the production of modern critical editions and theories of textual editing.
Class discussions will be in English, though we will read together in class a limited selection of episodes in the Persian. The aim is to gain deep understanding of the language, the characters and the themes of the Shahnameh, as well as the philological skills necessary to read medieval Persian poetry.

This course looks at Poetry and Politics in Modern Iran.