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Cross-Cultural Matches: Nizami and Dante Conference
Organized By Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Azerbaijan Comparative Literature Association, Association of Italianists Dante Group, and Pen Club Italia
Nezami Ganjavi (1141-1209) and Dante (1265-1 32 1) share unique, creative imaginations and eloquence. Dante's enduring literary portrayals in his Divine Comedy share some of the fictional and fantastical qualities of Nezami's portrayal of the story of Ascension in five different versions and other stories in his Seven Treasures. They also seem to share some fictional elements in their writings and a fascination for the portrayal of love, writing love poetry, and their creativity in rendering these. However. I would like to believe that what is most common between their literary endeavors is their ability to construct colorful allegories. Dante's Divine Comedy is an enormous allegory, which conveys commentaries on, primarily and paradoxically, religion, politics, and love. Nezami's allegories in his Five Treasures, such as the stories of Ascension, tales told by Bahram's lovers, or the imaginary congregation of Alexander and Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, are literary constructs that draw upon various themes, including religion and nature. Such subjects and themes serve in the construction of what I term Nezamian allegories. This presentation reviews the allegorical metaphorical aspects or some or these two authors' works. It analyzes the poetic hermeneutics, verbosity, and brevity with which they nave composed their prosody. Keywords: Nezami, Dante, Allegory, Imagination, Journeys.
Professor Kamran Talattof is Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Chair in Persian and Iranian Studies, School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies; Roshan Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Persian and Iranian Studies Founding Chair of the Department of Gender & Women's Studies University of Arizona Dr. Talattof is the Ph.D in Near Eastern Studies Department of Near Eastern Studies (History of Persian and Middle Eastern Literary Movements) from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1996). His dissertation published as The Politics of Writing in Iran: A History of Modem Persian Literature in comparison with Arabic and Turkish Literature). He has M.A. in Comparative Literature (Literary and Cultural Theory from the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor (1994); has Diploma in French Studies, Centre Madou, Brussels, Belgium (1986): B.A. in Public Administration and Law University of Tehran, College of Law and Public Administration (1976).
This event will be held at 11:30 am Baku Time.