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"Suspicious Gifts and Speculative Translations: Anglo-Persian Exchange in the Long Nineteenth Century"
Suspicious Gifts and Speculative Translations explores the intersection of economic transactions and verbal and non-verbal interactions in encounters between Persian and English in India and Iran during the long nineteenth century. This project shows that expressions of pleasantry and generosity (which have always accompanied the act of exchange) begin to pose a glitch in (semi)colonial encounters with the other—a glitch that disturbs the illusion of transparency at the heart of the colonial idea of economic modernity. Engaging a variety of understudied manuscripts as well as canonical texts and major colonial archives in both English and Persian, including economic pamphlets, novels, travelogues, and periodicals, the project underscore moments when a given exchange is contested, both in mundane conversations and in transnational concessions in Anglo-Persian exchange. In moments when a presumed gift turns out to be a commodity or a bribe, negotiations over exchange circularly feed into testy bargains over naming and translation. This translational bargaining entails conceptual speculations about economic terms in both English and Persian.
Niloofar Sarlati is an Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature.
