Baraheni, Reza 1935-

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BARAHENI, Reza 1935-

PERSONAL: Born April 7, 1935, in Tabriz, Iran; immigrated to the United States, 1974; son of Mohammad-Taghi (a worker) and Zahrasoltan (Shokoohetaze) Baraheni; married Angela Marangozidi, 1959 (divorced, June 22, 1966); married Sanaz Sihhati (a teacher), September 24, 1971; children: Aleca, Oktay-Mohammad. Education: University of Tabriz, B.A., 1957; University of Istanbul, Ph.D., 1960. Religion: "Born to a Moslem family."

ADDRESSES: Office—Centre for Comparative Literature, Isabel Bader Theatre, University of Toronto, 93 Charles St. W, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1K9, Canada; fax: 905-787-1367. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, lecturer, 1961-62, assistant professor, 1964-68, associate professor of English literature, 1968-74, dean of students, 1965-68, department chair for correspondence faculty, 1974; University of Iowa, Iowa City, poet in residence for International Writing Program, 1974; Indiana University—Bloomington, visiting professor of creative writing, 1975; Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, associate professor of English, 1977; University of Maryland—Baltimore, professor of creative writing, 1977-79; University of Tehran, professor of English and comparative literature, 1979-82; Fiction and Poetry Workshop, Tehran, director and instructor, 1983-96; University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, visiting instructor, 1997, writer in exile at Massey College, 1997-98, visiting professor of English, 1998-99, visiting professor at Centre for Comparative Literature, 1998—. American University in Cairo, distinguished visiting professor, 1971; University of Texas—Austin, visiting associate professor, 1972; University of Utah, visiting associate professor, 1973; Oxford University, Persian fellow at St. Antony's College, 1992. Lecturer in Iran and the United States; has given poetry readings and appeared at writers' festivals; guest on media programs in the United States and abroad, including the Today Show and the David Susskind Show. Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran (honorary cochair, 1975-79); member of Council of Latin American Human Rights and Mustafa Zjemilev Committee. Military service: Iranian Army, 1960-62.

MEMBER: International PEN (president of Canadian branch, 2001).

AWARDS, HONORS: Overseas Press Club of America Award, 1977, for international reporting in any medium that demonstrates a concern for humanity; Scholars at Risk Program Award, University of Toronto, 2000; award from International Freedom to Publish Committee, Association of American Publishers, 2000.

WRITINGS:

IN ENGLISH

Play No Play (one-act play), first produced in Salt Lake City, UT, at Salt Lake City Public Auditorium, 1973.

Zillulah, Abjad Publications (New York, NY), 1975, translation by the author published as God's Shadow: Prison Poems, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1976.

The Crowned Cannibals: Writings on Repression in Iran, introduction by E. L. Doctorow, Vintage (New York, NY), 1977.

TRANSLATOR INTO PERSIAN

William Shakespeare, Richard III, Amir Kabir (Tehran, Iran), 1963.

Ivo Andric, The Bridge over Drina, Franklin Pocket Books, 1963, 3rd edition, Nil Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1977.

Maxim Rodinson, Israel and the Arabs, Kharazmi Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1969, 3rd edition, 1973.

David Caute, Franz Fanon, Kharazmi Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1973.

OTHER

Khayyam and Fitzgerald within the Framework of the Victorian Era, University of Istanbul Publications (Istanbul, Turkey), 1960.

Ahovan-e bagh (poetry; title means "The Deer of the Garden"), Bamdad (Tehran, Iran), 1962.

Jangal-o-shahr (poem; title means "The Jungle and the City"), Bamdad (Tehran, Iran), 1963.

Shabi az nimrooz (poetry; title means "Night—Starting from Midday"), Bamdad (Tehran, Iran), 1965.

Tala dar mes (criticism; title means "Gold in Copper"), Chehr House (Tehran, Iran), 1965, 2nd edition, Zaman (Tehran, Iran), 1970.

Quesseh-nevisi (title means "The Writing and Theory of Fiction"), Ashraf Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1965.

Mosibati zir-e afetab (poetry and prose; title means "An Evil under the Sun"), Amir Kabir Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1970.

Gol bar gostare-ye mah (poetry; title means "A Flower upon Moon—Moonflower"), Zaman (Tehran, Iran), 1970.

Roozegar-e doozakhi-ye agha-ye Ayyaz (novel, first volume of a trilogy; title means "The Infernal Life of Aqa-ye Ayyaz"), Amirkabir Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1971.

Safar-e Mesr (title means "Journey into Egypt"), Pindar (Tehran, Iran), 1972.

Tarikh-e mozakkar: Resale-i piramoon-e tashattot-e farhang dar Iran (title means "Masculine History: A Manifesto on the Causes of Cultural Disintegration in Iran"), Pindar (Tehran, Iran), 1973.

Jonoone neveshtan (title means "The Insanity of Writing"), Iranmehr (Tehran, Iran), 1973.

Do baradar akhar-e khat dar yek khat (novel; title means "Two Brothers on the Same Line at the End"), Neguin (Tehran, Iran), 1974.

Chah be chah (novel; title means "From One Well to Another"), Nashr-i Naw (New York, NY), 1976.

Persia sin Mascara, Editorial Argos Vergara (Barcelona, Spain), 1978.

Dar inqil-ab-i Iran chih shudah ast va chih khv-ahad shud, Kit-ab-i Zam-an (Tehran, Iran), 1979.

What Happened after the Wedding (novel), Nashr-i Naw (Tehran, Iran), 1983.

Av-az-i kushtig-an, Nashr-i Naw (Tehran, Iran), 1983.

Our Grand Griefs: Requiems (poetry), Avval Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1983.

The Song of the Slain (novel), Nashr-i Naw (Tehran, Iran), 1983.

Gham'h-a-yi buzurg-i m-a: Mar-a-s-i, Nashr-i Naw (Tehran, Iran), 1984.

Esmael (poem), Nashr-i Murgh-i Am-in (Tehran, Iran), 1984.

Alchemy and Dust (criticism), Nashr-i Murgh-i Am-in (Tehran, Iran), 1985.

Hunar va adab-iy-at-i imr-uz, Kit-absar-a-yi B-abil (Tehran, Iran), 1986.

Ism-a-il: Yak shi r-i buland, Nashr-i Murgh-i Am-in (Tehran, Iran), 1987.

R-az'h-a-yi sarzam-in-i m-an, Nashr-i Murgh-i Am-in (Tehran, Iran), 1987.

Come to the Window (poetry), Nashr-i Murgh-i Am-in (Tehran, Iran), 1987.

Jun-un-i nivishtan, Shirkat-i Intish-ar-at-i-i Rass-am (Tehran, Iran), 1988.

The Mysteries of My Land, two volumes, Moghan Press (Tehran, Iran), 1988.

The Insanity of Writing, Rassam Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1989.

Y-ar khvush ch-iz-i ast: Shir'h-a-yi taghazzul-i, 1336-68, Shirkat-i Nashr va Pakhsh-i Vays (Tehran, Iran), 1990.

The Loved One, a Miracle: Selected Lyrical Poems, 1957-1989, Veys Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1990.

Tal-a dar mis, R. Bar-ahin-i, (Tehran, Iran), 1992.

Khit-ab bih parv-anah'h-a (shir), v Chir-a man d-igar sh-a 'ir-i N-im-a-i n-istam (bah-s-i dar sh-air-i) (poetry; title means "Accosting the Butterflies"), Nashr-i Markaz (Tehran, Iran), 1995.

Buhr-an-i rahbar-i-i naqd-i adab-i, Intish-ar-at-i V-istar, (Tehran, Iran), 1996.

Scheherazade and Dr. Sharifie's Private Auschwitz (Our Lady of Scribes) (novel), Baran Publications (Stockholm, Sweden), 1996.

Leadership Crisis of Literary Criticism in Iran, Vistar Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1996.

The Autobiography of Reza Baraheni, Iranian Society of Sweden (Sweden), 1996.

The Vigilant Vision (nonfiction), Qatreh Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1997.

Report to Tomorrow's Ageless Generation (essays), Markaz Publications (Tehran, Iran), 1998.

Persona non Grata (poetry), [Stockholm, Sweden], 1998.

Les Saisons en enfer du jeune Ayyaz (novel), Pauvert/Fayard (Paris, France), 2000.

(With others) Making Meaning, Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada), 2000.

Work represented in anthologies, including City Lights Anthology, edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights (San Francisco, CA), 1974; New Writings from the Middle East, New American Library (New York, NY), 1978; Voices of Conscience: Poetry from Oppression, edited by Hume Cronyn, Richard McKane, and Stephen Watts, Iron Press (London, England), 1995; This Prison Where I Live: The PEN Anthology of Imprisoned Writers, edited by Siobhan Dowd, Cassell (London, England, 1996; and Literatures of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, edited by Willis Barnstone and Tony Barnstone, Prentice-Hall (Tappan, NJ), 1999. Contributor of more than a hundred articles, poems, and translations to scholarly journals and popular magazines, including Penthouse, Iowa Review, and American Poetry Review.

Some of Baraheni's full-length manuscripts were published serially in Iranian periodicals. Editor-in-chief of Jahane No (title means "Modern World"), 1966; literary editor of Ferdowsi, 1964-70.

Baraheni's works have been published in Arabic, Armenian, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

SIDELIGHTS: The writer as witness may have emerged as one of the most characteristic artists of the twentieth century, and Reza Baraheni, a well-known writer and chronicler of tortures in Iran, is among the most important, according to E. L. Doctorow, writing in Harper's.

Some critics believe that politics makes bad art; some subscribe to the aesthetic dogma that denies the writer any other function than to place words in pleasing patterns. For the writer-witnesses, such as Baraheni, Doctorow found that the major problem is "how to communicate to those who insulate themselves in literature the terrible inadequacy of aesthetic criteria as applied to human suffering." Baraheni may have resolved this problem, since critics report that his works are successful both aesthetically and as eloquent statements of the human condition.

Baraheni's chronicles may be of special interest to Americans, for they are involved, indirectly or directly, in the support of a repressive Iranian government. New York Times contributor John Leonard said of Baraheni's writing: "And if his documentation of SAVAK terror, his prison memoirs, his compendium of tortures—names, dates, devices, sound familiar, we ought to remind ourselves that the Gulag seems to be the preeminent form of modern architecture, a franchise built of human bones, and that in this case, with the Shah, we are responsible."

Baraheni once told CA: "Since 1974, I have appealed directly to the American public and through them to the world at large. I have spoken and read my poetry and prose on more than fifty American campuses and talked to the people on almost all the major news media. My aims have been: first, to expose the Shah's dictatorial regime and the U.S. government's complicity with that regime; second, to force the Shah to open his jails and release all the political prisoners of Iran and to let the people take their own destiny in their own hands; next, to prevent the Shah, the Pentagon, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from arming our people to the teeth through the help of multinational corporations, and to allow our people to use their natural wealth the way they see fit; fourth, to force the Shah to stop harassing Iranian dissidents and students in the United States and to force SAVAK (the Iranian secret police) out of this country; and finally, to stop the Shah from extending his dictatorship to American universities through his attempts to bribe the academic community here.

"Since 1953, Americans have been directly responsible for the dictatorship in Iran. The legally elected government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq was overthrown by the CIA in that year and the Shah who had run away earlier was brought back and reinstalled on the throne. The American-trained SAVAK came to existence in 1957. The number of Americans in Iran is estimated at 30,000, with most of them involved in the training of the army, the police and the gendarmerie, or acting as representatives and employees of American corporations.

"Americans should ask their government to open the files of the CIA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the State Department on Iran. They should force their government to stop selling arms to the Shah, and to stop supporting his dictatorial rule. Public opinion in the United States should openly voice its opposition to the President's silence on the miserable situations of human rights in Iran.

"The people of Iran have come to the realization that they, and only they, should decide what form of government they want for their future. Whatever the form of that government, it will not be genuine unless the underprivileged majority of the people have the representation they rightly deserve. I can imagine that representation being achieved before we are through with the last decade of this century."

In a discussion of his literary influences, Baraheni wrote: "If I hadn't read the works of Rumi, the great Iranian poet, I wouldn't have known the meaning of poetry. My learning from the West taught me how to rationalize about the irrational (hence, my literary criticism). I have learned from Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky, as well as many others who were not revolutionaries socially: Proust, Joyce, Mann, Yeats, and Charles Olson. But at heart I am deeply rooted in the culture of the Middle East. My knowledge of Persian, Turkish, and Arabic, as well as French and English, is my window to the world."

Baraheni, who is considered by some to be the founder of modern literary criticism in Iran, was imprisoned and tortured by Iranian secret police for 102 days in 1973. His release was due to public pressure generated by the American branch of PEN, Amnesty International, and the Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran.