“In this fascinating account of the forging of national literatures, Aria Fani focuses on individuals, institutions, and mediums. He introduces us to the likes of the Afghan Sarwar Guyā E‘temādi, who lectured in Pakistan, Iran, and Soviet Central Asia, and the Bombay- and Lausanne-educated Mahmud Afshār, who founded periodicals and literary endowments in Iran. Linking such figures were local literary associations and state-funded universities whose textbooks and journals propagated new tasks for literature within and across national borders. Via what Fani calls his method of ‘East-East comparison,’ this is a milestone study that pushes against the boundaries of Middle Eastern cultural history.”
—Nile Green, editor of Afghan History through Afghan Eyes
“Reading across Borders is a groundbreaking critique of the very concept of literature in Iranian and Afghan contexts. With an outstanding command of literary history, primary texts, and the appropriate theoretical underpinnings, Aria Fani invites us to question decades of received wisdom that have relied on the constructed exceptionalism and glorification of 'Persian literature.' Through such a radical reassessment, Fani paves the way for a vastly more inclusive and socially responsible way of approaching Persian-language literary production, giving the reader the tools for a long overdue problematization of the myths of national identity and unexamined adages on the canon of Persian literature.”
—Leyla Rouhi, Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Romance Languages, Williams College