Suspicious Gifts, Skeptical Words: (Semi)Colonial Speculations in Anglo-Persian Encounters

With the “Hear, Here” series, we aim to facilitate conversations around new research in the humanities. Faculty fellows at the Institute for the Humanities will discuss a part of their current project in a short talk followed by a Q & A session.

About this talk:
This talk explores the intersection of the economic and the linguistic and the confusions thereof in interactions between English and Persian during the long nineteenth century. Underscoring contested moments in transcultural exchange—when a presumed gift turns out to be a commodity or a bribe—I show, negotiations over exchange circularly feed into testy bargains over naming and translation. Economic speculations entail speculations about the linguistic tissue that contextualizes a given exchange. Expressions of pleasantry and generosity begin to pose a glitch in colonial and semi-colonial encounters with the other, disturbing the illusion of transparency at the heart of the colonial idea of economic modernity.

Niloofar Sarlati is a 2024-25 John Rich Faculty Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities and Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature.