A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic

Abstract

There are three ways to interpret and analyze this book and its contents: literary, political, and literary-political. Not being a political person, I am neither an expert nor will I dabble in the political aspect of this book, which, I must add, is secondary to the literary. On to the literary: True to form and no surprises whatsoever for this reviewer, Fatemeh Shams has offered a novel work to be reckoned with. It is a daring literary hermeneutic into the Iranian political sphere. This work is seminal, and as a first monograph for Shams, it is astounding how she has maneuvered through this incredibly intricate theme with such rigor and deft knowledge and has produced an easy read that is informative throughout. This editor and reviewer congratulates University of Pennsylvania for seeing the potential in Shams in her position at that most prestigious institution. She is a refreshing, resounding yawp in Iranian studies.What is refreshingly important is the deft writing, which never wanders into verbosity and jargon. It is a tour de force in pen[hu]manship. The flow of argument is concise, clear, and the research, in my humble opinion, is extraordinary, so much so that I was drawn in by the historical buildup of the poetics and poetry. Truthfully, here is someone who is most qualified to speak to this phenomenon, although, again, politically I failed to engage, predominantly because I am a philologist. Nonetheless, she manages to get her point across perfectly clearly and, as such and in any academic undertaking, this is what makes a good book. I offer below a few examples of her writing and show that my judgment of this book is quite well founded. Early on in the book she says, “It’s not going too far in the direction of whimsy to claim that among the different art forms, poetry, in particular, played a key role in immortalizing the revolution during the embryonic days of state-building. The songs of revolution and Iran–Iraq war continue to be an integral part of the collective memory of the country.50 It is not an exaggeration to say that poetry helped sustain the official war culture for eight years (1980–1988)” (12).I find this to be true in all aspects of social dynamics in Iran and there is no doubt that Shams, a weathered and world-class poet whose poetry is resoundingly aware of milieu, taps into this argument from a poet’s point of view. On the hermeneutic side, indeed poetry weaponizes almost all conceptualizations of power, love, and existence in that culture. The songs of revolution is an interesting angle as these songs engage a camaraderie that is cognizant of its perceived social expectations. In this early statement Shams sets the stage for her argument in this book. Furthermore, and far more importantly, she delivers in flying colors. She has an understanding of Persian culture in its understanding of poetics that does not dabble in the cliché and highlights aspects that are less visited and less thought about.She engages ten poets all of whom I won’t get into here, but can say with surety that she parses them, layers them further post-parsing, and gives a philological purview to the reader that is at no point boring, uninformative, or repetitive. The example below illustrates her apt writing and insight:Another aspect of the book that I found most interesting is her ability to tap into the historical aspects of poetry, that is, the notion of the minstrel and patron in classical poetics and its application in a modern sense. This book is on point, brilliant, and I found nothing I could pick on as much as every reviewer wants to have a chance to be constructive. It could be longer, I guess, but that is no criticism because I wanted to read more of her writing and learn more from her insight. Shams should be congratulated for this effort and praised for her ability to be both a creator, a world-class poet, and an equally world-class scholar. I look forward to more books from this young scholar and I have no doubt academia will hear much more from her in years to come.