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Full-Text Articles in Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures

Re-Orientalisation And The Pursuit Of Ecstasy: Remembering Homeland In Prisoner Of Tehran, Esmaeil Zeiny Dec 2012

Re-Orientalisation And The Pursuit Of Ecstasy: Remembering Homeland In Prisoner Of Tehran, Esmaeil Zeiny

Esmaeil Zeiny

The Western literary market is saturated with the Middle Eastern women memoirs since 9/11. What caused this saturation lies in the curiosity of the West to know about the Middle Easterners after 9/11 and the following President Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ speech addressed to Iran, North Korea and Iraq, followed by launching his ‘war on terror’ project. This was the time when an influx of memoirs by and about Iranian women has emerged. This paper examines Marina Nemat’s memories of her birthland in her memoir, Prisoner of Tehran. Utilizing Dabashi’s concept of ‘native informer’, Bhabha’s concept of ‘stereotypical representation’ and …


Orientalisation Through Paratexts: The Covers Of Muslim Memoirs, Esmaeil Zeiny Dec 2012

Orientalisation Through Paratexts: The Covers Of Muslim Memoirs, Esmaeil Zeiny

Esmaeil Zeiny

The influx of memoirs by and about Iranian women has saturated the post-9/11 Western literary market. These memoirs, which emerged after 9/11 and the President Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ speech addressed to Iran, North Korea and Iraq, are written to quench the curiosity of the Western readers. However many of these memoirists have adopted Western Orientalism framework in writing their discourse. They use the Iranian psyche, people, culture and religious worlds to reproduce the Western bias against the ‘Other.’ This portrayal of Western Orientalism ‘otherness’, which oftentimes begins right from the covers of the memoirs, can be called orientalisation through …