America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present. John Ghazvinian (London: Oneworld, 2020). Pp 667, including notes and index. £35.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781786079473

Abstract

medium of narrative (252). Although Gould’s argument on the poetics of incarceration in the modern period is not as well-substantiated as previous chapters, highlighting the continuity of the genre and its potential for new structural and topical transformation paves the way for further scholarly investigation. Postrevolutionary poets such as Mohammad Farrokhi Yazdi, Ahmad Shamlu, Esmail Khoi, Khosrow Golsorkhi, Saeed Soltanpour, Houshang Ebtehaj, Reza Baraheni, Mohammadreza Ali-Payam, and Baktash Abtin would all provide compelling case studies of Persian prison poetry for future scholarship. “All great works of literature either establish a genre or dissolve one,” said the writer Walter Benjamin, quoted by Gould on the book’s very first page, which explores the Bakhtinian notion of genre-making, establishing the three criteria of form, theme, and discourse. In writing this book, Gould has, herself, shaken up the genre of literary scholarship, issuing a “call for in-depth engagement with [poetry’s] historical, cultural and political milieus, beyond what would typically be encountered in a work of contemporary literary theory” (21). This book should inspire other scholars to interrogate literature through innovative theoretical frameworks that similarly place Persian literature, across time and place, on the world stage.