Forugh Farrokhzad, Poet of Modern Iran

Iconic Woman and Feminine Pioneer of New Persian Poetry

I.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation

Forugh Farrokhzad was a pioneering Iranian poet and filmmaker, whose reputation as a path-breaking female rebel made her an iconic figure from her own time. Both her unconventional personal life and her captivating creative trajectory have captured the imaginations of generations of Iranians since she published her first poems in the mid-1950s. More than four decades after her death at the age of 32, Farrokhzad has come to represent the spirit of revolt against patriarchal and cultural norms in 1960s Iran. Her life and work continue to be pivotal not only to understanding Persian literary modernity and the rise of women's writing in Iran, but also to mapping the struggle of Iranian women for their rights.

During her lifetime Farrokhzad embodied the vexed predicament of the contemporary Iranian woman, at once subjected to long-held traditional practices and influenced by newly introduced modern social sensibilities. Highlighting her literary and cinematic innovation, this volume examines the unique place Farrokhzad occupies in Iran, both among modern Persian poets in general and as an Iranian woman writer in particular. The authors also explore Farrokhzad's appeal outside Iran in the Iranian diasporic imagination and through the numerous translations of her poetry into English.

Forugh Farrokhzad, Poet of Modern Iran brings her work into new focus and includes contributions from the leading scholars working in Iran, Europe, and North America who analyze Farrokhzad's work from diverse vantage points - literary criticism, film studies, feminism, translation studies, diasporic studies and cultural history. Delving into the dramatic development of Farrokhzad's poetry from seemingly naïve female-centred expressions of sexuality to complex engagements with the social, cultural and political concerns that dominated the Iranian landscape in the 1950s and 1960s, this book places Farrokhzad's oeuvre in the context of Persian literary history and the history of Iranian cinema as well as transnational Iranian culture. It also demonstrates how the English translations of her work and the rediscovery of her documentary films have garnered global appreciation of her innovative artistic works. Forugh Farrokhzad, Poet of Modern Iran is a fitting and authoritative tribute to the work of a remarkable woman which will introduce and explain her legacy for a 21st-century audience.