Leyla Rouhi is an Iranian-American literary scholar and Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Romance Languages at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

. She is known for her expertise on

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

Career

Leyla Rouhi specializes in medieval and early modern Spain as well as Comparative Literature. She has written extensively on

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

, as well the figure of the old woman as go-between in medieval Near Eastern and European traditions. She is the translator, from Spanish into English, of the first modern time-travel novel, '' The Anacronópete'' by

Enrique Gaspar Enrique Lucio Eugenio Gaspar y Rimbau (2 March 1842 in Madrid – 7 September 1902 in Oloron) was a Spanish diplomat and writer, who wrote many plays (''zarzuelas''), and one of the first novels involving time travel in fiction, time travel ...

, edited by

Michael Cooperson Michael Cooperson is an American scholar and translator of Arabic literature. He is professor of Arabic at UCLA. He has written two books: ''Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of the Prophets in the Age of al-Ma'mun'' and ''Al-Mamun (Makers Of Th ...

. She has also written on book culture in the poetry of

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature ...

and the Persian manuscript collection of the

Fundación Lázaro Galdiano Fundación is a town and municipality of the Colombian Department of Magdalena. Its people are known as Fundanenses. The primary economic activity is livestock-raising, for production of both meat and milk. Other crops are: corn, yuca, o ...

in Madrid. She has published, in collaboration with Julie A. Cassiday, a study of the role of Persia in

Alexander Sokurov Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, PAR (russian: link=no, Александр Николаевич Сокуров; born 14 June 1951) is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a feature film, ''Russian Ark'' (2002), filmed in a s ...

's ''

Russian Ark ''Russian Ark'' (russian: link=no, Русский ковчег, ''Russkij Kovcheg'') is a 2002 experimental historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. In ''Russian Ark'', an unnamed narrator wanders through the Winter Palace in Saint Pet ...

'', the procuress in the theatre of

Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...

, and the go-between figure in

Leopoldo Alas Leopoldo Enrique García-Alas y Ureña (25 April 1852 – 13 June 1901), also known as Clarín, was a Spanish realist novelist born in Zamora. His inflammatory articles, known as ''paliques'' (“chitchat”), as well as his advocacy of liber ...

' '' La Regenta''. Her other publications include a survey of Persian-language translations of ''

Don Quijote Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

'' and a critique of the mythologization of the singer Qamarulmuluk Vaziri. Previously, Rouhi was Preston S. Parish '41 Third Century Professor of Romance Languages. She teaches all levels of Spanish language and a wide range of content courses on Spain as well topics in Comparative Literature.

Books

* ''Mediation and Love: A Study of the Medieval Go-Between in Key Romance and Near-Eastern Texts'', Brill, 1999 * ''Under the Influence: Questioning the Comparative in Medieval Castile'', edited with Cynthia Robinson, Brill, 2004 * ''The Other Martyrs: Women and the Poetics of Sexuality, Sacrifice, and Death'', edited with Alireza Korangy, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag Press, 2018

References

External links

Leyla Rouhi at Williams College
Iranologists Living people Iranian women critics Iranian literary critics American women critics American literary critics Williams College faculty Comparative literature academics Alumni of the University of Oxford Harvard University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Iranian women academics {{Iran-academic-bio-stub