“A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil.” This one quote from Reading Lolita in Tehran is enough to describe what I felt after I finished reading the book.
Reading Lolita in Tehran is not a novel in the strictest sense. It is a memoir in books but it did manage to heighten my sensitivity towards the oppressive life of Iranians under the Islamic regime.
After teaching English Literature in three universities in Iran and being expelled or resigning in despair from each, Nafisi handpicked seven students and invited them to come to her home to discuss literature. These classes gradually become a means of escape for her and her students (All girls) from the totalitarian Islamic regime. Reading Lolita in Tehran paints a poignant picture of young women in search of another republic, which Nafisi calls the Republic of Imagination, to find themselves.
The mention of Lolita, a controversial novel, was an inspired choice because of the novel's overt matter. Nabokov's beautiful and hard to understand prose become subversive and act as metaphors. Humbert's seizure of Lolita and her loss of identity became a metaphor for the way the Islamic regime was treating women in Iran. Nafisi's classes start with Scheherzade and Thousand and One nights; the classes gradually concentrate on Western Literature.
This book is not political. This book is a lens through which readers can see how people cope when they live under an oppressive reality. The main theme of this book is how do people create open spaces through their imaginations. Reading Lolita in Tehran shows how a girl, who has never been to Europe or America, can, through these books, connect with places she has never been to. Not only connect with them, but interpret them in her own unique way.
Reading Lolita in Tehran is an extremely personal memoir coupled with literary criticism. The book includes parallel stories of her students and teaching days accompanied with the mention of a secret, almost mystical confidante mentioned as 'the magician'. The magician has a angel-like presence through out the book.
Along with reading and discussing some beautiful works of literature, Nafisi and her family survive the Iran-Iraq war. The bombings and the frightening situation of Iranians during the war is a poignant example of human empathy and solidarity.
One thing which struck me about Reading Lolita in Tehran is that this book is just not about literature but about inspirational teaching. A kind of teaching which makes you teach yourself by applying your own intelligence, thoughts and emotions to what you are reading.
When Nafisi assigns The Great Gatsby to her class, there are many puritanical and orthodox students who vehemently oppose the book, saying that Jay Gatsby is a poor role model. Following the fashion of Islamic regime, Nafisi encourages her students to put the book on trial. She plays the book. There are speeches in defense and prosecution of The Great Gatsby but the only witness is the book itself. The trial is closed before the book is put to vote but not before a dialogue has shown the positive value of the book and the pointlessness in analysing it.
The most moving section of the book for me is a section of Henry James' Daisy Miller- when the heroine-in telling an emotionally reticent admirer not to be afraid-embraces her own difference and fate. It is with Daisy Miller that the students most identify.
Reading Lolita in Tehran is a celebration of the power of the novel. It is also a cry of outrage at the reality in which these women are trapped. This book contains important and complex reflections about the ravages of theocracy, about thoughtfulness and the ordeals of freedom. It is a moving portrayal of the pleasures and deepening of consciousness which results from an encounter with great literature.
Reading Lolita in Tehran is not a novel in the strictest sense. It is a memoir in books but it did manage to heighten my sensitivity towards the oppressive life of Iranians under the Islamic regime.
After teaching English Literature in three universities in Iran and being expelled or resigning in despair from each, Nafisi handpicked seven students and invited them to come to her home to discuss literature. These classes gradually become a means of escape for her and her students (All girls) from the totalitarian Islamic regime. Reading Lolita in Tehran paints a poignant picture of young women in search of another republic, which Nafisi calls the Republic of Imagination, to find themselves.
The mention of Lolita, a controversial novel, was an inspired choice because of the novel's overt matter. Nabokov's beautiful and hard to understand prose become subversive and act as metaphors. Humbert's seizure of Lolita and her loss of identity became a metaphor for the way the Islamic regime was treating women in Iran. Nafisi's classes start with Scheherzade and Thousand and One nights; the classes gradually concentrate on Western Literature.
This book is not political. This book is a lens through which readers can see how people cope when they live under an oppressive reality. The main theme of this book is how do people create open spaces through their imaginations. Reading Lolita in Tehran shows how a girl, who has never been to Europe or America, can, through these books, connect with places she has never been to. Not only connect with them, but interpret them in her own unique way.
Reading Lolita in Tehran is an extremely personal memoir coupled with literary criticism. The book includes parallel stories of her students and teaching days accompanied with the mention of a secret, almost mystical confidante mentioned as 'the magician'. The magician has a angel-like presence through out the book.
Along with reading and discussing some beautiful works of literature, Nafisi and her family survive the Iran-Iraq war. The bombings and the frightening situation of Iranians during the war is a poignant example of human empathy and solidarity.
One thing which struck me about Reading Lolita in Tehran is that this book is just not about literature but about inspirational teaching. A kind of teaching which makes you teach yourself by applying your own intelligence, thoughts and emotions to what you are reading.
When Nafisi assigns The Great Gatsby to her class, there are many puritanical and orthodox students who vehemently oppose the book, saying that Jay Gatsby is a poor role model. Following the fashion of Islamic regime, Nafisi encourages her students to put the book on trial. She plays the book. There are speeches in defense and prosecution of The Great Gatsby but the only witness is the book itself. The trial is closed before the book is put to vote but not before a dialogue has shown the positive value of the book and the pointlessness in analysing it.
The most moving section of the book for me is a section of Henry James' Daisy Miller- when the heroine-in telling an emotionally reticent admirer not to be afraid-embraces her own difference and fate. It is with Daisy Miller that the students most identify.
Reading Lolita in Tehran is a celebration of the power of the novel. It is also a cry of outrage at the reality in which these women are trapped. This book contains important and complex reflections about the ravages of theocracy, about thoughtfulness and the ordeals of freedom. It is a moving portrayal of the pleasures and deepening of consciousness which results from an encounter with great literature.
