Con­trol­ling Ques­tion: The usage(s) of and relationship(s) between the terms “Per­sian” and “Iran­ian” in cur­rent dis­course — lit­er­ary, cul­tural, polit­i­cal and oth­er­wise — is a com­plex one, with each term simul­ta­ne­ously con­ceal­ing and reveal­ing highly con­tested and politi­cized posi­tions regard­ing the nature of cul­tural, national and per­sonal iden­ti­ties. The lit­er­a­ture pro­duced within the space(s) defined by these posi­tions dates back to at least the 10^th cen­tury, when Fer­dowsi com­posed the Shah­nameh using almost no Ara­bic loan words, an act of lit­er­ary sub­ver­sion that almost single-handedly res­ur­rected Per­sian as a lit­er­ary lan­guage in the face of what had been Arabic’s dom­i­nance. Today, the lit­er­a­ture being pro­duced within these spaces is writ­ten in (or trans­lated into) many lan­guages other than Per­sian, in coun­tries far beyond the bor­ders of the ancient Per­sian Empire, and by peo­ple whose con­nec­tions to what­ever is defined by the terms “Per­sian” and/or “Iran­ian” are any­thing but mono­lithic. Given all this, is it fair to call this lit­er­a­ture a world lit­er­a­ture? If not, why not?

For a spe­cial edi­tion of Arte­News, the online jour­nal pub­lished by ArteEast, we are solic­it­ing sub­mis­sions in the fol­low­ing categories:

1. Essays of 1,000 – 1,500 words in response to any aspect of the con­trol­ling question.
2. Essays of 1,000 – 1,500 words that address any other aspect of Persian/Iranian literature.
3. Poetry: 3 – 5 poems, includ­ing trans­la­tions from any his­tor­i­cal period, that fall within the space(s) defined by the con­trol­ling ques­tion. The poems need not have been writ­ten orig­i­nally in Eng­lish, but any non-English poems must be accom­pa­nied by strong, lit­er­ary, Eng­lish trans­la­tions. Trans­la­tors must show proof of the right to pub­lish the translations.
4. Short sto­ries or mem­oirs, using the same guide­lines as for poetry, of between 1,000 – 1,5000 words.

Please send sub­mis­sions, with the sub­ject head­ing Arte­News Sub­mis­sion, to richardjeffreynewman@​verizon.​net.