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"It is true, the spoken word enlightens both the spirit and the soul. Indeed, the HENDRICK’S Master Distiller can often be heard talking at length to her ‘two little sweeties’ – the delightful and peculiarly small copper pot stills from which the most unusual gin flows." |
SADEQ HEDAYAT
His Work and his Wondrous World
With Dr Homa Katouzian
Wednesday the 18th May 2011
Doors at 6 pm, Show commences at 7 pm
Sadeq Hedayat was born in Tehran in 1903. His studies brought him to Europe where his fascination with writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, Jean-Paul Sartre and Rainer Maria Rilke began. Indeed, such was the influence of Rilke and his considerations of death upon the young Hedayat that he attempted to drown himself in Marne in 1927. Although RIlke's influence is more memorably felt in Hedayat's masterpiece novella The Blind Owl.
Regardless of his debt to the influence of European literature, Hedayat was responsible for bringing Iranian literature to a wider international attention as well as introducing a distinct modern voice into the domestic tradition. In contemporary Iran, Hedayat's work is only partially available in a bowlderised form, in part due to its sustained attacks upon the corruption and abuses of power by monarchy and clergy alike.
This lecture is a wonderful opportunity to acquaint yourself with one of the most distinct voices in 20th century literature.
Dr Homa Katouzian is an economist, historian and literary critic. He is Iran Heritage Research Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford and editor of the Iranian Studies Journal. He has published extensively in both Farsi and English and his book Sadeq Hedayat, His Work and His Wondrous World was recently republished in paperback.
Talks at 11 Mare Street - please click here to buy tickets
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