Iranian Women's Literature

From Pre-Revolutionary Social Discourse to Post-Revolutionary Feminism

Bibliographic Data

ID8968326
AuthorsKamran Talattof (Princeton University, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume29
Issue4
Pages531-558
Publication date1997-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743800065193
OpenAlexW2100752042
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited22

The literary works produced by Iranian women writers after the 1979 revolution, despite their diversity in artistic value and quality of narrative, commonly manifest a remarkable sensitivity toward women's issues and gender relations. The overall theme tying these works together seems to be the problematic of gender hierarchy and women's suffering expressed in a figurative language, transcending the extant male-dominated literary discourse. In these works, women's personal and private experiences become public. Their narratives articulate their protests against sexual oppression and reflect their struggle for identity. This phenomenon is noteworthy not simply because this is a literature produced by women about women, but also because this body of work displays a contrast with the literary works produced by women in the decades preceding the revolution. Pre-revolutionary works, under the sway of the dominant literary discourse, did not give rise to a feminist literary movement, for they emphasized sociopolitical issues more than specific gender issues. To be sure, there were themes related to women, but they were often presented in the context of socially conscious yet male-dominated committed literature. Women's literary paradigms before and after the revolution thus represent different literary discourses, and the Iranian Revolution of 1979 appears to be the major historical event that separates these two discourses and may well be responsible for the shift. In a strict sense, gender is socially constituted, and gender issues are in fact a type of social issue

Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology · Feminism · Identity (music · Literary criticism · Literature · Narrative · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Contemporary and Historical Greek Studies · Gender Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Turkey's Politics and Society

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