Farzaneh Milani: The Poetics of Thresholds

Welcome back to Parse! Thank you for tuning in to listen to the premiere of our second season!

In this episode of Parse we have an excerpt from a talk given by Dr. Farzaneh Milani where she expounds on her theory of “Thresholds” and their importance in Iranian women’s literary tradition. According to Milani, “Thresholds” are an in-between space where binary modes of thought are disrupted. Standing at the intersection of East and West, inside and outside, local and global, Iranian women writers and poets are reorganizing the literary, political, cultural, and discursive landscapes of Iran and achieving the level of national and international recognition they richly deserve.

Milani completed her graduate studies in comparative literature at the University of California in Los Angeles in 1979. Her dissertation, “Forugh Farrokhzad: A Feminist Perspective” was a critical study of the poetry of the pioneering Iranian poet. Milani is currently the Raymond J. Nelson Professor of Iranian literature and Gender Studies at the University of Virginia. The Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy invited Milani to join it as a member of its Board of External Experts for Literature in 2021. Milani will serve in that capacity for three years.