Focusing on one of the core arguments of her newly published book, A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-Option Under the Islamic Republic (Oxford University Press, 2021), Shams explores the ways in which poetry has been deployed by both poets and politicians in post-revolutionary Iran to articulate and sustain the collective memory of a nation grappling with insurmountable change. Shams sheds light on this blurring between the materials of the past and the political priorities of the present to uncover the key role played by poetry in romanticizing political thought and governance in the post-revolutionary period.

Fatemeh Shams is assistant professor of Modern Persian at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of A Revolution in Rhyme.