Azeri Turkish Narratives in Twentieth-Century Iran

Leila Rahimi Bahmany is a Guest Professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She earned her doctorate from the Free University of Berlin, specialising in modern literature of Iran and comparative literature. Her first book, Mirrors of Entrapment and Emancipation: Forugh Farrokhzad and Sylvia Plath (Leiden University Press, 2015) received the Latfifeh Yarshater Award.

• Note on Transliteration, Dates and TranslationAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Politics of Writing in Azeri Turkish and Early InfluencesNation and Monolingualism in IranThe Emergence of Modern 'Small Literature' in Agitated Azerbaijan (1941–46)The Newspaper Aẕərbaycan (1945–46) and Its Main Contributor: Fətḥi XoşginabiThe Wooden Language of the Fictionalised Propaganda: Major Contributors to Aẕərbaycan (1945–46)Tehran, the Centre of Tyranny as Reflected in Aẕərbaycan (1945–46)Writing Against Oblivion: Folktales and Memoirs (1947–79)The Revolution, the Pledge of Liberation and the Literature of Exile (1979–95)When Truths Are Spoken: Oppression beyond Azerbaijan (1993–2000)Resilience through Language and History: Stories from Ardabil (1998–2000)Charting Narratives: Towards Future PerspectivesBibliographyIndex

In this carefully researched and well-written study, Leila Rahimi Bahmany reveals the complex history of twentieth-century Azeri Turkish writing, showing how the Soviet occupation of Iranian Azerbaijan opened up new possibilities for the expression of individual and collective identity. Azeri Turkish Narratives in Twentieth-Century Iran will be of value to specialists in Middle Eastern Studies, illuminating the interplay of monolingualism and plurilingualism; to students of World Literature, highlighting the role of so-called 'minor literatures'; and to anyone sensitive to the intense and often fraught relationship of national identity and language.