Domenico Ingenito
· Associate Professor of Iranian Studies and Persian LiteratureUniversity of California, Los Angeles · Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Active 2009–2026
About
Domenico Ingenito is a scholar whose work focuses on Persian literature, with a particular emphasis on Saʿdī of Shiraz and the aesthetics of desire in medieval Persian poetry. His research involves reconfiguring the classical Persian canon by integrating themes of homoeroticism, lyricism, and political insight, challenging traditional perceptions of Saʿdī's works. Ingenito's approach employs philological rigor, contextualization, and critical analysis to explore the porousness between genres, modalities, and themes such as desire, politics, and spirituality within Saʿdī's poetry. His contributions include a detailed reassessment of Saʿdī's aesthetic, highlighting the complex interplay between sensuality, eroticism, and ethical teachings. Ingenito's work rehabilitates previously neglected aspects of Saʿdī's poetry, such as pornographic poems, and demonstrates how these elements serve as counter-texts to the amatory lyric, revealing a flexible system that intertwines desire, devotion, and political power. His methodological approach involves navigating textual and conceptual ambivalences, emphasizing non-linear interpretations of literary and philosophical material, and positioning Saʿdī within broader contexts of Islamic and Persian thought, including influences from al-Ghazālī and Ibn Sīnā.
Research topics
- History
- Computer Science
- Literature
- Art
- Ancient history
- Aesthetics
Selected publications
The Enchanted Ecstasy of Medieval Persian Lyric: Toward a New Theory of Lyric Affect
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies · 2026-01-01
article1st authorCorrespondingRather than conceiving of poetry as a container of biographically determined meaning, medieval Arabo-Persian poetics emphasize the impact that texts have on the human body and psyche. Medieval manuals on mystical practices describe the correlation between ecstatic states of consciousness and the experience of listening to lyric poetry. In a similar vein, contemporary theorizations conceive of lyric as a suspended gesture that neither mimics external reality nor provides readers with purely fictional worlds. According to such models, the sharing of lyric poetry is conceived as an act-event that must be performed by a reading or listening subject in order to generate meaning. By juxtaposing medieval Persian poetics with modern paradigms through a critical inquiry that is both circular and cross-cultural, this article shows how a new affective theory of the lyric can account for experiences of enchantment, disenchantment, and partial self-loss that redefine the boundaries of selfhood and regulate the reader's jouissance when embodying lyric texts.
Saʿdī (d. 691/1292) on the Senses, the Body, and Imagination
2024-07-02
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingHafiz and his contemporaries: poetry, performance and patronage in fourteenth-century Iran
Middle Eastern Literatures · 2021 · 3 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Literature
- History
- Art
2020-12-11
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingNote on Dates, Names, and Transliteration
2020-12-11
article1st authorCorrespondingEpilogue: Poetry as a Mirror for Experience
2020-12-11
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2020-12-11
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2020-12-11
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingThe Homoerotics of Political Power and the Emergence of Gendered Desires
2020-12-11
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingIntroduction: The Mufti of the Masters of Gazes
2020-12-11
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
Awards & honors
- Bahari Fellow in the Persian Arts of the Book (University of…
- Teaching Excellence (STE): Environmental Humanities, Mellon-…
- Teaching Excellence (STE): Urban Humanities, Mellon-EPIC Fel…
- 2016-2017 Hellman Fellowship (UCLA)
- Diversity Course Development (UCLA)
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