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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
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An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity," she writes.
Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds. The great works encouraged them to strike out against authoritarianism and repression in their own ways, both large and small: "There, in that living room, we rediscovered that we were also living, breathing human beings; and no matter how repressive the state became, no matter how intimidated and frightened we were, like Lolita we tried to escape and to create our own little pockets of freedom," she writes. In short, the art helped them to survive. --Shawn Carkonen -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
From Booklist
Nafisi, a former English professor at the University of Tehran, decided to hold secret, private classes at her home after the rules at the university became too restrictive. She invited seven insightful, talented women to participate in the class. At first they were tentative and reserved, but gradually they bonded over discussions of Lolita, Pride and Prejudice, and A Thousand and One Nights. They neither draw exact parallels between the texts and their lives nor find them completely foreign. Nafisi observes: "Lolita was not a critique of the Islamic Republic, but it went against the grain of all totalitarian perspectives." Nafisi mixes literary analyses in with her observations of the growing oppressive environment of the Islamic Republic of Iran: women are forced to wear the veil at university and eventually separated in class from men. Bombs fall outside while Nafisi tries to conduct class. Nafisi's determination and devotion to literature shine through, and her book is an absorbing look at primarily Western classics through the eyes of women and men living in a very different culture. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
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Format:Taschenbuch
This book will appeal most to those who want to understand what it has been like to be a Western educated and liberated woman in Iran since the Iranian revolution began against the shah. If you also enjoy English literary criticism and analysis, you will have a great treat ahead of you. If hearing about injustice and brutality upset you, you will like this book less well.
The format of this book is most unusual. I predict that you will either find the format intriguing or maddening, depending on how flexible you are in your appreciation of new styles. Professor Nafisi writes her memoir of those years in a sort of semi-diary form. The observations are filled with nuance about the people in her life, the nature of her life, her thoughts and how what's going on reflects the concerns of four novelists, Nabokov (especially through Lolita), Fitzgerald (especially through The Great Gatsby), James (especially through Daisy Miller and The Ambassadors), and Austen (especially through Pride and Prejudice). Against this literary and personal backdrop, violent events explode every few pages as the Islamic Republic is established and begins its crackdown on women and dissidents. Later, the Iran-Iraq war provides similar moments of violence.
The literary-real life nexus is related to Professor Nafisi having been an English literature professor in Tehran when the revolution began. At first, she still taught in the university. Later she resigned. Still later, she agreed to return in full Muslim regalia for women. Then, she quit again and began teaching a secret class for her most devoted students in her home.
The book opens with a lyrical description of the home teaching experience in the context of Lolita, which the group was studying. After that section, the book moves back in time and proceeds in chronological fashion through the author's decision to leave Iran to relocate with her family in the United States.
This book taught me many things. First, I had no idea of the degree of repression and oppression that has occurred in Iran. Second, I was intrigued by how Professor Nafisi tried to live a decent, meaningful life in this difficult context. Her life is a good example for all who like to help others. Third, I was impressed by the way she could use student reactions to literature as a way of explaining what their culture and experiences have been like. For instance, her women students usually did not date, but were trying to understand complex relationships between people of the opposite sex who were attracted to one another. There was a difficult experience void to fill. In addition, the more literal male students would associate any immoral action taken by any character as suggesting that the book is immoral and that the author approved of the action . . . even if the character later suffered the direst consequences because of the action. Fourth, our freedom in the United States is vastly more precious than we realize. Reading about what it's like to have a religion running the country is an important lesson that we should all be aware of.
Professor Nafisi is a thoughtful, insightful and caring person. I enjoyed learning about her as well. Many of her students also appealed to me, and I enjoyed finding out how they dealt with their challenges.
Be free!
The format of this book is most unusual. I predict that you will either find the format intriguing or maddening, depending on how flexible you are in your appreciation of new styles. Professor Nafisi writes her memoir of those years in a sort of semi-diary form. The observations are filled with nuance about the people in her life, the nature of her life, her thoughts and how what's going on reflects the concerns of four novelists, Nabokov (especially through Lolita), Fitzgerald (especially through The Great Gatsby), James (especially through Daisy Miller and The Ambassadors), and Austen (especially through Pride and Prejudice). Against this literary and personal backdrop, violent events explode every few pages as the Islamic Republic is established and begins its crackdown on women and dissidents. Later, the Iran-Iraq war provides similar moments of violence.
The literary-real life nexus is related to Professor Nafisi having been an English literature professor in Tehran when the revolution began. At first, she still taught in the university. Later she resigned. Still later, she agreed to return in full Muslim regalia for women. Then, she quit again and began teaching a secret class for her most devoted students in her home.
The book opens with a lyrical description of the home teaching experience in the context of Lolita, which the group was studying. After that section, the book moves back in time and proceeds in chronological fashion through the author's decision to leave Iran to relocate with her family in the United States.
This book taught me many things. First, I had no idea of the degree of repression and oppression that has occurred in Iran. Second, I was intrigued by how Professor Nafisi tried to live a decent, meaningful life in this difficult context. Her life is a good example for all who like to help others. Third, I was impressed by the way she could use student reactions to literature as a way of explaining what their culture and experiences have been like. For instance, her women students usually did not date, but were trying to understand complex relationships between people of the opposite sex who were attracted to one another. There was a difficult experience void to fill. In addition, the more literal male students would associate any immoral action taken by any character as suggesting that the book is immoral and that the author approved of the action . . . even if the character later suffered the direst consequences because of the action. Fourth, our freedom in the United States is vastly more precious than we realize. Reading about what it's like to have a religion running the country is an important lesson that we should all be aware of.
Professor Nafisi is a thoughtful, insightful and caring person. I enjoyed learning about her as well. Many of her students also appealed to me, and I enjoyed finding out how they dealt with their challenges.
Be free!
2 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
Ich hatte erwartet, in diesem Roman ginge es um einen Kreis von Frauen die sich in Teheran zusammenfinden, um über Literatur zu diskutieren. Dies ist zwar der Aufhänger, faktisch ist das Buch aber eine Abhandlung über verschiedenste Werke der amerikanischen Klassik. Den Literaturkreis gibt es zwar, die anderen Frauen kommen aber praktisch nie zu Wort, es dominieren immer die Ansichten der Autorin. Ebenso sind die Einblicke in das Leben im Iran extrem spärlich. Es wird zwar viel darüber gejammert, aber nachvollziehbar wird das kaum, weil einem die Charaktere und das Leben fremd bleiben. Was auch kein Wunder ist, scheint es doch der Autorin primär um amerikanische Literatur zu gehen.
Spätere Kapitel versetzten den Leser in die Zeit unmittelbar nach der islamischen Revolution. Es wird zwar weiterhin amerikanische Literatur diskutiert, aber immerhin wird diese besser mit der realen Situation im Iran verbunden. Diese Teile fand ich dann auch sehr interessant und informativ, weil man eben auch etwas von der damaligen Situation im Iran mitbekommt. Die ersten 70 Seiten würden aber eher in das Nachwort eines der diskutierten Bücher passen, als in einen eigenen Roman.
Spätere Kapitel versetzten den Leser in die Zeit unmittelbar nach der islamischen Revolution. Es wird zwar weiterhin amerikanische Literatur diskutiert, aber immerhin wird diese besser mit der realen Situation im Iran verbunden. Diese Teile fand ich dann auch sehr interessant und informativ, weil man eben auch etwas von der damaligen Situation im Iran mitbekommt. Die ersten 70 Seiten würden aber eher in das Nachwort eines der diskutierten Bücher passen, als in einen eigenen Roman.
1 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
I have to passion to go for any book that has an unusual but interesting setting. Reading Lolita in Tehran proved to be one of such books. I wasn't disappointed when I read it to the last page. Dwelling in an atmosphere of tyranny which breeds fear, the book talks of dissent in a new political system that was against openness in arts, culture, history and dissent. In the Iran of her times, even western literature was considered anti-revolutionary by the authorities, yet people stayed determined to pay any price to be connected to the rest of the world. War and peace still left the society yearning for freedom, a craving to be free that led to the author's decision to eventually leave Iran with her family to the United States of America.
Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE
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