Transcript Reading Lolita in Tehran

Reading Lolita in Tehran
A Story About Stories, a
Culture, and a Consciousness
Objectives
Understand the unique nature and characteristics of
memoir
Identify, analyze, and evaluate rhetorical strategies in
the text
Understand context and how it influences both author
and reader
Recognize and understand how personal experience is
colored by social, political, and cultural issues
Read, discuss, and apply supplemental texts to
understanding and analysis of main text
Evaluate Nafisi’s use of personal experience to
illuminate the consciousness of a culture
Memoir
A piece or pieces of autobiography that
illuminates as much about the
political/social/cultural as it does the
personal
Stories: Literature taught by Nafisi in both
universities and her private class
Culture: Tehran during and after the
Revolution
Consciousness: Influential political and
religious convictions
Azar Nafisi
Professor of Literature
B. 1947 Tehran, Iran
Father mayor of Tehran (1961-63); Mother member of
Parlaiment under the Shah
Educated in England starting at age 13
Moved to US in last year of high school; Ph.D. from U of
OK
Returned to Iran in 1979 – taught at 3 Universities
*Views on Islamic Revolution*
Left Iran in 1997; still a professor
2008 RLiT becomes voice of her experience teaching
and running a secret book club
Iran or Persia
1500 B.C.E, Medes and Persians
Cyrus the Great – Persian Empire (Achaemenid)
Alexander
Seleucids, Parthians, Sasanians, Arab Muslims
“International scientific and cultural center”, 8th c., B.C.E
12th c., Mongols
Safavid Dynasty (1501-1722) – Shiite Islam
Qajar Dynasty (1794-1925)
Russians and British
1921, British and Reza Kahn – Reza Shah Pahlavi
Modernization and abolishment of extraterritorial rights
The Islamic Revolution
Equality; many supporters
Savak, civil war close
Opposers led by Ayatollah Khomeini
January 16, 1979 – Shah flees
February 1 - Khomeini returns
Processes against supporters of the Shah
April 1 – Islamic Republic declared
Reflective of Ayatollah’s ideals of Islamic government
Gradual widespread protest
US Hostage Crisis
War with Iraq (Cease fire 1988)
1981 – Ayatollah Khamenei President; June 3 1989 supreme
spiritual leader
Islam
Monotheist religion; Christianity and Judaism
accepted by Qur’an
Qur’an and Hadeeth (or Hadith) main teachings
Complementary differences in the physiology and
psychology of men and women
Polygamy
Five Pillars
Shahada
Salat
Saum
Zakat
Hajj
*20/20*
Lolita and Vladimir Nabokov
Narrated by Humbert Humbert – villain
Humbert joins Lolita and mom – Lolita
proceeds to flirt outrageously, yet naively
Lolita kidnapped, drugged, and raped by
then widowed stepfather Humbert
Abused and held “captive” for years
Humbert’s argument that Lolita is also
culpable is believable!
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fictionalized but accurate
story of The Jazz Age
Bootlegger, stalker, former lover Gatsby
pursues Daisy and The American Dream
Disillusionment
Corruption and Innocence
Time and Longing for the Past
Disdain for privilege and wealth
Individual Freedom vs. Social Limitation
Henry James
Daisy Miller is a superficial socialite who
is also lacking in manners and finesse
Catherine Sloper is proper and
righteous, but lacking in experience
Opposite heroines with essentially the
same goals
Opposite and ironic ends for both
Jane Austen
Satirist
Roles of Women
Unconventional heroines
Self-Discovery
Independence
Oppressive social conditions for
women
Suggested Further Reading
Things I’ve Been Silent About:
Memories of a Prodigal Daughter by Azar Nafisi
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russel
I Am Nujood: Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
The Arabian Nights by Various Unknown Authors, translated
by numerous scholars in a variety of forms
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz
Love’s Ripening: Rumi on the Heart’s Journey
Lolita and Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Daisy Miller and Washington Square by Henry James
The Complete Novels of Jane Austen, ed. Karen Joy Fowler