Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2015
DOI
10.15215/aupress/9781927356869.01
Publication Title
Familiar and Foreign: Identity in Iranian Film and Literature, Chapter 2
Pages
31-60
Abstract
[From the Introduction] The idea that language embodies patriarchal thought processes, severing women writers from the written language and from their own words, was first elaborated by the French feminist theorists Luce Irigaray and Hélène Cixous. Irigaray argues, for example, that language generally denies women a distinct subjectivity, with the result that the voice of women has largely been excluded from mainstream cultural discourse (Donovan). In this chapter, I juxtapose this theory to the obstacles faced by Iranian women writers of life narratives. Is it possible that Persian could have impeded Iranian women’s literary aspirations, especially in the genre of life narratives? Conscious of the limitations of examining Iranian culture through a Western cultural gaze, I do not depend on Western theorists alone. Instead, I analyze the roots of the language as much as possible.
Original Publication Citation
Goldin, F. D. (2015). Overcoming gender: The impact of the Persian language on Iranian women’s confessional literature. In M. Mannani & V. Thompson (Eds.), Familiar and Foreign: Identity in Iranian Film and Literature (pp. 31-60). Alberta, Canada: Athabasca University.
Repository Citation
Goldin, Farideh Dayanim, "Overcoming Gender: The Impact of the Persian Language on Iranian Women’s Confessional Literature" (2015). English Faculty Publications. 30.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_fac_pubs/30
Included in
Comparative Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Language Description and Documentation Commons, Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons
Comments
The PDF version of this chapter was downloaded from the open access publisher site: Athabasca University Press http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120245