Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – Aria Fani, "Reading Across Borders: Afghans, Iranians, and Literary Nationalism" (U Texas Press, 2024)
Host: Morteza Hajizadeh
Guest: Dr. Aria Fani
Date: October 31, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores the research and insights of Dr. Aria Fani, whose book "Reading Across Borders: Afghans, Iranians, and Literary Nationalism" interrogates the role of literature in shaping national identities, particularly between Iran and Afghanistan. The conversation centers on how colonial and nationalist movements transformed concepts of language, literature, and belonging in these neighboring countries. Issues of race, exclusion, the creation of literary canons, and current social and political realities (including the treatment of Afghans in Iran) are examined, revealing both historical continuities and the urgent stakes of cultural politics today.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Inception and Scope of the Book

[02:24] Dr. Aria Fani:

• Dr. Fani explains his motivation, rooted in a “sense of justice.”
• Highlights the “uneasy relationship” between Iranians and Afghans, pointing to shared language, history, and faith, yet persistent divisions.
• The book examines how the concept of "Adabiyyat" (literature) became central to national projects in both Iran and Afghanistan, evolving from a pluralistic, ethical-aesthetic framework to a nationalist tool.
• Chapters cover:
  • The construction of literary discourse in dictionaries, textbooks, etc.
  • Intellectual debates between Afghans and Iranians.
  • Nationalization of literature in each country.
  • 21st-century transnational travelogues.

Quote:

"The story of the book is how one concept, that of literature or in Persian Adabiyyat, basically served this nationalizing project." – Dr. Fani [04:15]

2. Transformation of "Adab" to "Adabiyyat"

[08:44] Dr. Aria Fani:

• “Adab” originally meant a cultivated blend of ethics and aesthetics; it was behavior, wisdom, and learning, spread across many disciplines.
• The early 20th century witnessed a dramatic conceptual shift: “Adabiyyat” became redefined as a corpus of works embodying the civilizational/national achievements of a unitary people, mirroring European models.
• This shift involved not just translation of terminology from Europe but an active, often violent, reordering of cultural knowledge.

Quote:

“Adabiyyat was a plural designation for all these sciences... In the early 20th century, there is a massive conceptual realignment: Adabiyyat loses its plurality. It becomes a singular designation, a singular word that refers to a corpus, a body of prized writings...” – Dr. Fani [10:25]

3. Institutions and Canon-Building

[16:54] Dr. Aria Fani:

• Literary associations (“Anjoman”, or "literary societies") and later state institutions (like faculties of literature) were key in shaping new concepts, reconfiguring tradition, and manufacturing national literary canons.
• Early periodicals served as platforms for debate, translation, and conceptual invention, creating the infrastructure for both national and transnational literary exchange.
• Though the outcome was a national canon, the process was impressively transnational, with extensive exchanges and translations.
• Multilingualism fueled, ironically, the later enforcement of monolingual norms—through banning vernaculars and privileging Persian in Iran.

Quote:

“The methods... that were instrumental in the formation of this discourse were all decidedly, unmistakably, emphatically, transnational, global in nature. And multilingualism was basically put in the service of manufacturing monolingualism, which is a great tragedy.” – Dr. Fani [20:33]

4. Differences between Iranian and Afghan Nationalism

[24:43] Dr. Aria Fani:

• Afghanistan’s state pursued bilingualism (Persian and Pashto), reflecting a pluralist—if imperfect—approach, while Iran (under the Pahlavi dynasty) enforced monolingualism, marked by the marginalization and racism toward non-Persian speakers (e.g., Azeris).
• Iranian historiography splits pre-Islamic and Islamic eras sharply, constructing a myth of abrupt civilizational change and ethnic purity—a narrative largely rejected or nuanced by the Afghan perspective.
• Afghan historiography, by contrast, celebrates syncretic histories: Buddhism, Manichaeism, Islam, Sikhism.

Quote:

“This is what we gain by the comparative method... we understand that these molds... are not by default the only way we could go about this. We could reimagine this.” – Dr. Fani [29:46]
“Nationalism is one of the most robust mechanisms by which a society is ideologically transformed: a collective comes together through shared remembrance of certain aspects... and also by shared forgetfulness of things they don’t want to remember.” – Dr. Fani [30:57]

5. Race, Literature, and the Myth of Decline/Revival

[33:43] Dr. Aria Fani:

• The cliché that Ferdowsi “saved” Persian/Iranian identity after Islamic conquest is interrogated. Literary texts had limited dissemination; the supposed “revival” narrative is seen as exclusionary myth-making.
• The formation of modern literary history and canon is intertwined with racial ideologies—claims of Aryan descent and the mapping of race, religion, and language.

Memorable Analogy:

“...so he [Bahar] says it would be like going to a black man and saying, hey, how come your skull is of this size? How come your eyes are not blue? How come your intelligence level is not high?...he’s using so seamlessly...this comparison between basically race and literature itself...” – Dr. Fani [38:30]

• Racial exclusion and references to Aryanness permeate Iranian discourses; this is not unique to Europe or America.
• The impact of these myths and exclusions still destabilizes any unified notion of Iranian identity.

6. The Ethics of Literature and Current Repercussions

[42:37] Dr. Aria Fani:

• Dr. Fani connects the book’s themes to contemporary injustices, especially the mistreatment and displacement of Afghans in Iran.
• Emphasizes the need to resist the bureaucratic language of the nation-state (“deportation”) and adopt humanizing terms (“displacement,” “Afghan residents of Iran”).
• Critiques the way institutions (even in academia) valorize imagined, ancient cultural glory while ignoring contemporary realities, violence, and the pluralism of modern communities.

Quote:

“This book...began with actual friendship with living, breathing Afghans...it would be the height of academic elitism not to speak out against the mass displacement of 800,000 Afghan residents of Iran.” – Dr. Fani [42:47]

7. The Loss of Ethics in Modern Literary Discourse

[48:13] Dr. Aria Fani:

• The original plural meaning of “adabiyyat” (joining beauty and ethics) was narrowed to pure aesthetics—separating literature from its ethical roots.
• Argues that humanities must retain their ethical function—raising consciousness, inspiring activism, and combating injustice.
• Shares the story of a former student, Aishanur Ezgi Egi, who was killed in Palestine while acting on these principles.

Quote:

“Adab still lingers in adabiyyat, meaning that when I, as a professor...teach a text that deals with state violence...how could I not mention what is happening to the Palestinian people in the hands of a settler-colonial state...What kind of ethics would that be...?” – Dr. Fani [48:30]

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Adabiyyat and Nationalism:
  “Violence comes in different forms and shapes. So, the story of the book is how one concept, that of literature or in Persian Adabiyyat, basically served this nationalizing project.” – Dr. Fani [04:12]

• On Comparative Nationalism:
  “If we can put that collective energy, that world-making energy, and put it in the service of identifying with a warming, imperiled planet...then I think we could all live, breathe far easier on this planet.” – Dr. Fani [31:33]

• On Institutional Complicity:
  “Once a field becomes identitarian, becomes a means of identifying with a certain group, that is the beginning of a very, very drastic intellectual rot...” – Dr. Fani [46:10]

• On Literary Ethics:
  “Someone who said beautiful things and someone who stood for beautiful things. And most importantly, someone whose actions created beauty in our world.” – Dr. Fani (about his student Aishanur Ezgi Egi) [50:13]

Important Timestamps

• [02:24] – Aria Fani introduces himself and gives the book’s inception story.
• [08:44] – Discussion of the shift from adab to adabiyyat.
• [16:54] – The role of literary associations and the transnational roots of canon-building.
• [24:43] – Differences between Iranian and Afghan nationalism.
• [33:43] – Race in nation-building; critique of the “myth of decline” and literary revival.
• [42:37] – Afghan displacement in Iran; critique of nation-state and scholarly ethics.
• [48:13] – Ethics versus aesthetics in literature; story of Aishanur Ezgi Egi.

Final Thoughts

The episode closes with both guest and host emphasizing the urgency of restoring literature's ethical dimension. Dr. Fani’s scholarship is presented as a call to “read against the grain,” to resist exclusionary narratives, and to enact justice inside and outside the classroom. The lessons of "Reading Across Borders" resonate not just for Iran and Afghanistan, but for all contexts where literature, culture, and nationalism intersect and collide.