Constructing identity in Iranian-American self-narrative
By: Maria D. Wagenknecht
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781137479617
Subjects: American literature; Iranian American authors; History and criticism; Iranian Americans; Biography; Autobiography; Iranian diaspora; LITERARY CRITICISM / General; LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General; LITERARY CRITICISM / Middle Eastern; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / General
Description: "Defined by the Iranian Revolution, forced migration and diaspora, Iranian-American autobiographies center in the experience of rupture and discontinuity. Taking autobiographical writing as performance of identity, this study identifies their narrative patterns and communicative functions in the interaction of author, diaspora and American market. Especially authors' disidentification with traditionalism and politicized Islam and their construction of a 'Persian' instead of Iranian identity speaks not only to the diaspora, but is also geared towards greater acceptance in American society. What is more, self-orientalization aims to satisfy the expectations of American readers. However, this seems to be the price that Iranian-American autobiographers need to pay if they want to work as cultural brokers on behalf of a country that has become largely demonized. Tracing these dynamics of individual and collective identity construction within one of the youngest minorities in the USA, this study offers insights that are not only of scholarly but also of political importance"--

"Defined by the experience of the Iranian Revolution and diaspora, Iranian-American autobiographies center in the multilayered experience of rupture and discontinuity. Taking autobiographical writing as performance of identity, this study identifies their narrative patterns and traces their communicative functions in the interaction of author, diaspora and book market"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: Introduction; title: PART I: TROUBLED HERITAGE; title: 1. Explaining Departure: Narratives of Victimicy; title: 2. A Usable Past: Construction of Religion and Alternative Identifications; title: PART II: LANGUAGE, BODY, AND THE IRANIAN-AMERICAN SELF; title: 3. The Interplay of Language and Identity Construction; title: 4. The Iranian-American Body In Between; title: PART III: CULTURE INHERITED/IN FLUX; title: 5. Between Fiction and Fact: Telling the Iranian-American Self; title: 6. Relative Identities: The Iranian-American Self in Its Relation to Others; title: 7. Imagining "Home:" Between Persian Paradise and American Arcadia; title: Conclusion.