Arabic & Persian Studies Teaching Staff
Dr Saeed Talajooy
Contact Information
Email: srt34@cam.ac.uk
Current Position
Iran Heritage Foundation Lector in Persian Language and Culture
Background
I began to engage with Persian classical and modern literature and world literature in my high school years. During my undergraduate years while trying to find my way in the various periods of English literature, I became particularly interested in how ideas, characters and images travel across genres, cultures and historical periods.
The title of my PhD, ‘Mythologizing the Transition: A Comparative Study of Bahram Beyzaie and Wole Soyinka’ marks this passion and my current research suggests the continuity of my engagement with cultural studies and intercultural adaptation in Iran and beyond. Indeed, my love for inter-textual and inter-media journeys of ideas has become the guiding principle for my research and teaching throughout my career in Iran and the UK.
Current Research
My current research is on the point of convergence between literary, performance and film studies and on the reflection of the changing patterns of Iranian identity in Persian literature and Iranian theatre and cinema. The latter involves studying the way Iranian playwrights and filmmakers refashion indigenous dramatic forms, modes of thought, myths, history and classical literary works to recreate their ideal images of Iranian identity, or the way they adapt non-Iranian novels and plays for Iranian stage and screen. It reflects on technical, thematic and intercultural adaptation as a way of promoting or resisting dominant cultural discourses.
I have taught English language and literature in Iran, and Persian language and literature, comparative literature and Iranian cinema in the UK. At the moment, in addition to teaching Persian language, literature and culture here at Cambridge, I am working on two book projects. The first which I am editing with Dr Karima Laachir is entitled Resistance in Contemporary Middle Eastern Cultures: Literature, Cinema and Music (Routledge, May 2012). This is a collection of essays on how creative artists and writers resist dominant cultural and social discourses in their cultural products across the Middle East and North Africa. The other, Modernity and Iranian Drama: Plays and Playwrights is a collection of five Iranian plays in English and my essays on the Iranian theatre, which will be published by Spring 2013.
Research Interests
Research Interests (Keywords): Iranian Drama and Theatre; Modernity and Iranian Culture; Iranian Cinema; Modern Persian Poetry; Classical Persian Literature, particularly Shahnameh, Khayyam, Baba Taher, Nezami and Rumi; Translation, Postcolonial and Film Studies; and Comparative Studies of Persian Literature and Literature in English.
Forthcoming Publications
Books
2012: Saeed Reza Talajooy & Karima Laachir (eds.), Resistance in Contemporary Middle Eastern Cultures: Literature, Cinema and Music (Routledge, 2012). [ Amazon Link ]
Special Issues of Journal
2012: Saeed Talajooy, Iranian Studies: Special Issue on Bahram Beyzaie, 45, 5.
2012: Saeed Talajooy, (PERSIAN) Iran Nameh: Vijheh Nameh-ye Tajddod va Namayesh-e Irani (Special Issue on Modernity and Iranian Drama), 28, 1.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals
January 2012: ‘Family and City in Bahram Beyzaie’s The Crow and Maybe Some Other Time’ in Fereshteh Kowsser (Guest Editor) Iran Nameh, 27, 2 (PERSIAN).
May 2012: ‘Bahram Beyzaie and the Occupation: World War II in Iranian Cinema’ in Mansour Bonakdaian (Guest Editor) Iran Nameh, 27, 3 (PERSIAN).
Autumn 2012: ‘The Rejuvenation of Naqqali Tradition in Bahram Beyzaie’s Plays’ in Saeed Talajooy (Guest Editor) Iranian Studies: Special Issue on Bahram Beyzaie, 45, 5.
Chapters in Books
Spring 2012: ‘The Impact of the Soviet Contact on Iranian Theatre: Abdolhosein Nushin and the Tudeh Party’ in Stephanie Cronin, (ed.) Empires and Revolution: Iranian-Russian Encounters Since 1800 (I.B. Tauris)
May 2012: ‘Confronting the Suppressive Readings of Religion in Post-Revolutionary Iranian Theatre’ in Saeed Talajooy & Karima Laachir (eds.), Resistance in Contemporary Middle Eastern Culture: Literature, Cinema and Music (Routledge, 2011).
Summer 2012: ‘Myth and History in Iranian Drama: Bahram Beyzaie’ in Ali Ansari (ed.), Perceptions of Iran: History, Myths and Nationalism from Medieval Persia to the Islamic Republic (International Library of Iranian Studies) (I.B. Tauris).
Autumn 2012: ‘Esfandiyar in Contemporary Iranian Theatre and Cinema’ in Ali Ansari (ed.) The Shahnameh & Persianate Identity (I.B. Tauris).
Publications in Print
Articles: English
July 2011: ‘Indigenous Performing Traditions in Post-Revolutionary Iranian Theatre’, Iranian Studies, 44, 4.
Autumn 2000: ‘Heidegger: Interpretation as Philosophy of Being’ The Research Journal of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, 9. (University of Tehran): 40-53.
Books: Persian
2011: Tabar-e Niroomand: Zendegi va Asar-e Wole Soyinka [The Strong Breed: Wole Soyinka’s Theatre] (With a translation of The Strong Breed. Tehran: Nila).
Chapters in Books
2011: In Directory of Iranian Cinema, (London: Intellect)
- Profiles: Rakhshan Bani-Etemad / Jafar Panahi / Bahram Beyzaie
- Films: Bashu, the Little Stranger/ The Crow/ The Downpour/ The Legend of Tara/ The Journey/ Killing the Rabid Dog/ Maybe Some Other Time/ The Stranger and the Fog/ Uncle Moustache/ The Mirror/ Offside/ Three Women/ Women’s Prison
Articles: Persian
Specialist Journals
February 2000: ‘Metamorphosis: The Insect Will Become a Butterfly in Alireza Kooshk Jalali’s Play on Kafka’ in Namayesh (Tehran): 32-40.
February 2000: ‘Pablo Neruda, the Poet of Open Horizons in Alireza Koosk Jalali’s Play in Namayesh (Tehran): 44-51.
June 1999: ‘Davood Rashidi’s Richard the Third’ in Namayesh (Tehran): 16-21.
December 1998: ‘The Hairy Ape: the Conflict between the Individual and Society’ in Namayesh (Tehran):10-17.
Periodicals
October1999: ‘Golden-Toothed as a Musical World of Pastiche’ (On Davood Mir Bagheri’s Dandoon Tala [Golden-Toothed]. Soroosh: 11-14.
June1999: ‘The Clan of Blood: A Postmodern Adaptation of King Lear’/ A review of a play by Attila Pessiani. Soroosh (Tehran): 21-25.
Spring 1999: ‘An Introduction to Modern and Post Modern Literary Criticism’ (4 articles) Javan (Tehran).
April 1999: ‘Blood Wedding: the Text and the Performance’/ A study of a performance of Lorka’s play by Ali Rafi’i. Soroosh (Tehran): 52-57.
December 1998: ‘John Gabriel Borkman: Dreams Deferred’ Soroosh (Tehran): 50-53.
October 1998: ‘Rostam and Sohrab: Struggle between Generations’/ A study of Ferdowsi’s poem and Pari Saberi’s play. Soroosh (Tehran): 18-25.
November 1996: ‘Wisława Szymborska’ in Soroosh (Tehran): 13-16.
Translations: English to Persian
Articles and Encyclopaedia Entries
Summer 2002: ‘Adabiiat’ [Literature], ‘Esteareh’ [Metaphor], ‘Jenas’ [Metonymy], ‘Osulgeraei’ [Classicism], ‘Rishehai-e Zibaei Shenasi’ [Origins of Aesthetics] in Mashit Alaei (ed.), Daneshnameh Zibashenasi. (Tehran: Farahngestan Honar). [Michael Kelly (ed.) (1998): Encyclopaedia of Aesthetics. Boston: Oxford University Press].
Summer 2002: ‘Sharq-shenasi be Masabe Yek Gofteman’ [Ihab Habib Hassan, ‘Orientalism as a Discourse’] in Gozaresh-e Goftegoo, the Journal of the Centre for Intercultural Dialogue, (Tehran): 27 -35.
September 1998: ‘Doniay-e Aroosaki: Tajrobeh-ye Jhapon’ [Penny Francis, ‘The Puppet World: The Experience in Japan’] in Namayesh Theatre Journal (Tehran): 33-9.
June 1998: ‘Sakhtargaraei va Naqd-e Adabi’ [G. Genet, ‘Structuralism & Literary Criticism’] in Soroosh (Tehran): 31-42.
Books
February 1997: Mashin-e Zaman [The Time Machine] H.G. Wells. Tehran: Borhan. (It includes biographical & critical material).
Photo: Dr A.K. Bennison