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I am a Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Glasgow. Prior to that, I was Lecturer in Comparative Literature at King's College London. I completed my doctorate at the University of Oxford and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Warwick. I have also held visiting fellowships at the universities of Columbia and Johns Hopkins.
I love sharing my research with the wider public and was in fact selected in 2021 to be part of the BBC New Generation Thinkers scheme. Links to my Radio 3 programmes on BBC Sounds are available on this website's media page. The same programmes are also available to download as part of the BBC Arts & Ideas podcast. My second book Iran and French Orientalism: Persia in the Literary Culture of Nineteenth-Century France will be published by I.B. Tauris in winter 2023-24. The book reveals Iran's special place in French culture as an 'Oriental' nation that was seen as culturally closer to Europe. In it, I cover everything from women travellers in Qajar Iran, to the invention of the Aryan myth, to the impact of new translations of Persian poetry on French poetry. Below you will find information about my first book and some. other recent academic publications. |
Photo by Marzia D'Amico
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Reading Dante and Proust by Analogy, Legenda (Transcript series).
This is the “thesis book”. It reads Dante’s Divine Comedy and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time in dialogue, in order to offer a new perspective on these familiar faces of the Western canon. I focus in particular on: literary authority and the role of first-person narrative; the structuring effect of journey metaphors and the resistance to narrative teleology; the gendered representation of mentor figures; the redemption narrative.
REVIEWS:
'Hartley’s erudite, persuasive, and reader-friendly book is a powerful debut, an irresistible invitation to love literature. I confidently look forward to her future work.’ — Thomas Pavel, Modern Philology
‘comparative work at its best ’— Ilaria Serra, Speculum
‘an important example for literary comparisons to come.’ — Valentina Mele, Modern Language Review
'A stimulating methodological contribution to the field of comparative literature.’ — Alessandra Aloisi, H-France
‘brillante étude […] un fin plaidoyer pour la littérature comparée’ —Hughes Azérad, French Studies
‘an enlightening, original, and powerful book’ — Serena Vandi, Italian Studies
‘The Medieval and the Modern in Baudelaire’s “À une passante”’, Nineteenth-Century French Studies’ Fall-Winter issue.
An article analysing Baudelaire’s poem “À une passante” in light of two medieval Italian sonnets, Dante Alighieri’s “Tanto gentile” and Guido Cavalcanti’s “Chi è questa che vèn”. It argues that although “À une passante” is frequently held up as a quintessentially modern poem, its form and subject matter are in fact deeply indebted to the medieval love lyric. I argue for an alternative understanding of the modernity of “À une passante”, one based on a modern sense of subjectivity and consequent treatment of the relationship to the beloved and temporality.
‘Sa’di at Large’, special issue section of Iranian Studies, September–November issue.
My first time as guest editor, the issue brings together essays on the dissemination of the medieval Persian poet Saʿdi’s writings in Asia and Europe. The issue’s primary focus is on translations of Saʿdi’s Golestān into European languages, but its articles also explore comparative readings between Saʿdi and Western texts, editorial practices between Ottoman Turkey and Iran, and creative appropriations and rewritings. The issue includes my own article on Marceline Desbordes-Valmore's poem 'Les Roses de Saadi' (1860) and Sa'di's Golestan has been published by Iranian Studies journal.
‘Identifying with the Orient: Exoticism and Similarity in Jean Lahor’s Quatrains d’Al-Ghazali’, MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities 2019 issue ‘Reframing European Exoticism’.
The shortest of these publications — 4000 words only! — this article gives you a quick taste of the postdoctoral project by looking at a Parnassian poet who claimed that the medieval Islamic theologian Al-Ghazali was his alter-ego.
This is the “thesis book”. It reads Dante’s Divine Comedy and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time in dialogue, in order to offer a new perspective on these familiar faces of the Western canon. I focus in particular on: literary authority and the role of first-person narrative; the structuring effect of journey metaphors and the resistance to narrative teleology; the gendered representation of mentor figures; the redemption narrative.
REVIEWS:
'Hartley’s erudite, persuasive, and reader-friendly book is a powerful debut, an irresistible invitation to love literature. I confidently look forward to her future work.’ — Thomas Pavel, Modern Philology
‘comparative work at its best ’— Ilaria Serra, Speculum
‘an important example for literary comparisons to come.’ — Valentina Mele, Modern Language Review
'A stimulating methodological contribution to the field of comparative literature.’ — Alessandra Aloisi, H-France
‘brillante étude […] un fin plaidoyer pour la littérature comparée’ —Hughes Azérad, French Studies
‘an enlightening, original, and powerful book’ — Serena Vandi, Italian Studies
‘The Medieval and the Modern in Baudelaire’s “À une passante”’, Nineteenth-Century French Studies’ Fall-Winter issue.
An article analysing Baudelaire’s poem “À une passante” in light of two medieval Italian sonnets, Dante Alighieri’s “Tanto gentile” and Guido Cavalcanti’s “Chi è questa che vèn”. It argues that although “À une passante” is frequently held up as a quintessentially modern poem, its form and subject matter are in fact deeply indebted to the medieval love lyric. I argue for an alternative understanding of the modernity of “À une passante”, one based on a modern sense of subjectivity and consequent treatment of the relationship to the beloved and temporality.
‘Sa’di at Large’, special issue section of Iranian Studies, September–November issue.
My first time as guest editor, the issue brings together essays on the dissemination of the medieval Persian poet Saʿdi’s writings in Asia and Europe. The issue’s primary focus is on translations of Saʿdi’s Golestān into European languages, but its articles also explore comparative readings between Saʿdi and Western texts, editorial practices between Ottoman Turkey and Iran, and creative appropriations and rewritings. The issue includes my own article on Marceline Desbordes-Valmore's poem 'Les Roses de Saadi' (1860) and Sa'di's Golestan has been published by Iranian Studies journal.
‘Identifying with the Orient: Exoticism and Similarity in Jean Lahor’s Quatrains d’Al-Ghazali’, MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities 2019 issue ‘Reframing European Exoticism’.
The shortest of these publications — 4000 words only! — this article gives you a quick taste of the postdoctoral project by looking at a Parnassian poet who claimed that the medieval Islamic theologian Al-Ghazali was his alter-ego.