Thesis Format
Monograph
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
English
Supervisor
Lee, Alison
2nd Supervisor
Rahimieh, Nasrin
Affiliation
UC Irvine
Co-Supervisor
Abstract
Iranian-Canadian literature has yet to be examined through the lens of diaspora studies and as a constituency of Canadian literature. Even though the number of Iranian immigrants and international students has increased markedly in Canada since the 1979 Revolution, we have barely heard about the Iranian-Canadian diaspora. In this project, I intend to look into selected Iranian-Canadian literature in order to investigate how and in what ways this hyphenated literature has helped the Iranian “imagined community” in Canada create a diasporic re-collectivity. The main reason for the absence of scholarship on Iranian-Canadian literature is that as a “neither-nor” society, to use Afsaneh Najmabadi’s words, Iran has barely experienced colonization, slavery, or indentured labour, as a result of which it cannot easily be incorporated into postcolonial studies. Any negligence toward a diasporic literature based on both home and host countries as constituents of the diaspora’s hyphenated identity eclipses the significance of interrelations between the two societies. By doing this research, I hope to decontextualize Iranian diasporic literature from its American context and decenter the importance of the veil and Orientalist discourse, which have been the main perspectives within which Iranian diasporic literature has been often defined and discussed. Chapter 1 discusses Fereshteh Molavi’s Thirty Shadow Birds (2019) to show how Molavi creates a hyphenated diasporic identity for Iranian-Canadian populations mainly through Persian literary conventions. Chapter 2 investigates the role of memoirs in Iranian-Canadian literature to differentiate Iranian-Canadian memoirs from the Iranian American by looking into Maziar Bahari’s Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival (2011); this chapter demonstrates how Bahari degenders the genre of memoir in the Iranian diasporic literature and depicts the process of (en)gendering the West as a form of resistance for Iranian politicians against imperialism. Chapter 3 discusses Ava Homa’s Daughters of Smoke and Fire (2020) to delineate how the national identity devised by the Islamic government of Iran has suppressed religious and linguistic minorities. Against this background and by challenging the Aryan race as the pillar of Iranian national identity, authors like Homa have tried to make through Iranian-Canadian literature a diasporic space inclusive of Iran’s minoritized ethnicities. My goal in this project is to start the overdue conversation on Iranian-Canadian literature as an important component of Iranian diasporic studies.
Summary for Lay Audience
Iranian diasporic literature has been mainly examined in the context of Iranian American literary phenomenon, especially after the remarkable increase of Iranian émigré women’s memoirs in the post-9/11 era. Nonetheless, the aim of analyzing diasporic literatures is discussing them in the framework of home and host societies. Iranian-Canadian literature has barely been studied through the lens of diaspora studies, even though the number of Iranian émigrés and international students has increased markedly in Canada since the 1979 Revolution. The postcolonial stance in Canadian literature and literary theory has hindered Iranian-Canadian literature from becoming a constituency of Canadian literature, since Iran has not undergone events associated with postcolonial approaches to literature, namely colonization, slavery, or indentured labour. However, as the Iranian-Canadian literature has entered Canada’s book market, and there are increasing numbers of Iranians in Canada promoting their status from immigrants to diasporic agents, the conversation on Iranian-Canadian diasporic literature is overdue. In this project, I intend to look into representative works of Iranian-Canadian literature in order to investigate how and in what ways this hyphenated literature has helped the Iranian “imagined community” in Canada create a diasporic re-collectivity. Chapter 1 discusses Fereshteh Molavi’s Thirty Shadow Birds(2019) to show how Molavi creates a hyphenated diasporic identity for Iranian-Canadian populations mainly through Persian literary conventions. Chapter 2 investigates the role of memoirs in Iranian-Canadian literature to differentiate Iranian-Canadian memoirs from the Iranian American by looking into Maziar Bahari’s Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival (2011); this chapter demonstrates how Bahari degenders the genre of memoir in the Iranian diasporic literature and depicts the process of (en)gendering the West as a form of resistance for Iranian politicians against imperialism. Chapter 3 discusses Ava Homa’s Daughters of Smoke and Fire (2020) to delineate how the national identity devised by the Islamic government of Iran has suppressed religious and linguistic minorities. Against this background and by challenging the Aryan race as the pillar of Iranian national identity, authors like Homa have tried to make through Iranian-Canadian literature a diasporic space inclusive of Iran’s minoritized ethnicities. My goal in this project is to start the overdue conversation on Iranian-Canadian literature as an important component of Iranian diasporic studies.
Recommended Citation
Ezzatikarami, Mahdiyeh, "Diaspora and Abjection of a Nowhere in Particular: Theorizing the Hyphen in Iranian-Canadian Narratives" (2022). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 8912.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/8912