“Berkeley Lecture Series” presents:
A Talk by Dr. Julie Scott Meisami – Scholar of Near Eastern Languages
Topic: “The Mad Lover: the “Romance” of Layli and Majnun”
The “Romance” of Layli and her lover Majnun (“the madman”) has excited authors’ and poets’ imaginations through many centuries and in many languages. From its Arabic origins (largely anecdotes attached to the poems of Qays ibnal-Mulawwah, known as Majnun) it has developed into full-blown narrative romances in verse and prose. This talk will concentrate on one verse romance, by the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, and on the illustrations of this text (and other versions of it), in particular the artists’ depictions of Majnun.
Dr. Julie Meisami recived her PH. D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley in 1971. She has taught at University of Tehran, Oxford University and Agha Khan Fellow in Islamic Art, Harvard University. Dr. Meisami is the author of “Medieval Persian Court Poetry” (Princeton UP, 1987), “Verse translation of Nizami Ganjavi’s Haft Paykar” (Oxford University Press, 1995), “Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature” [ed. with Paul Starkey] (London, Routledge, 1998), “Persian Historiography to the End of the Twelfth Century” (Edinburgh UP, 1999), “Structure and Meaning in Medieval Arabic and Persian Poetry” (London, Routledge Curzon, 2003), among others.
Dr. Meisami is currently working on relations between texts/poetry/images (especially involving Majnun).
Date: Sunday, August 26, 2007
Time: 4:00 P.M.
Place: 110 Barrows Hall
University of California, Berkeley
http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/large_map.html
Lecture in English
Suggested Donation: $10.00
No donation expected from students
Further questions may be directed to: berkeleylectures@yahoo.com