Modern Iranian Narratives of Departure and Return
Though critical and popular attention related to Iranian literary production has focused almost exclusively on the diasporic memoir and its politicized narrative of return, competing narratives of the traveling self flourish both within Iran and without. This panel considers the problem of departure and return that has characterized the modern literary tradition in Iran, ranging from a focus on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travelogues, memoirs, and letters, to the nineteenth- and twentieth-century practices of exilic writing, as well as the cultural production of the Iranian diaspora.
Friday, April 25, 10:15 AM – 12:15 PM
Jasmin Darznik, Princeton U
“The Perils and Seductions of Home: Return Narratives of the Iranian Diaspora”
Leila Pazargadi, UCLA
“Repackaging Memoirs: The Graphic as Testimonial in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis”
Manijeh Mannani, Athabasca U
“Where’s Home in the Debut Narratives of Nafisi and Keshavarz?”
Mahnaz Badihian, New College of California
“Religio-Sexual Dichotomy: The Erotic Literature of Diasporic Iranian Women”
Saturday, April 26, 10:15 AM – 12:15 PM
Babak Elahi, Rochester Institute of Technology
“Conditions of Return in Bahram Farmanara’s Yek Boos-eh Kuchulu (A Little Kiss)”
Guilan Siassi, UCLA
“Mapping Home in Goli Taraghi’s ‘Father’”
Somy Kim, UT Austin
“Novel Journey: The Case of Ibrahim Bayg”
Sunday, April 27, 10:15 AM – 12:15 PM
Eden Naby, Independent Scholar
“Tormented Sensibilities: Narratives of Iran’s Christians Minorities”
Roksana Bahramitash, U de Montréal
“Wedding”
Farideh Dayanim Goldin, Old Dominion U
“Yearning For a Lost World: Iranian Jewish Women Writers in Exile”