Reading Lolita in Tehran
Introduction
Discussion Questions
About the author
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Dr. Azar Nafisi
Iranian-American
Lived in Iran until she was 13
Moved to England to go to school
Went back to Iran in 1979 after she
finished college
Lived there for 18 years (part of the
setting of the novel)
About the author
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Struggled with “home”
What is “home”?
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Where you were born?
Where they practice your cherished values?
Discussion Questions
“Lolita” Section (pp. 1-78)
1. Yassi adores playing with words,
particularly with Nabokov's fanciful
linguistic creation upsilamba. What does
the word upsilamba mean to you?
(Lolita Section, p. 18-21)
“Lolita” Section (pp. 1-78)
2. In discussing the frame story of A
Thousand and One Nights, Dr. Nafisi
mentions three types of women who fell
victim to the king's "unreasonable rule."
How relevant are the actions and
decisions of these fictional women to the
lives of the women in Dr. Nafisi's private
class? (Lolita Section, p. 19)
“Lolita” Section (pp. 1-78)
3. Discuss the recurrent theme of complicity
in the book: that the Ayatollah, the stern
philosopher-king, "did to us what we
allowed him to do." (Lolita Section, p.
28)
“Lolita” Section (pp. 1-78)
4. The confiscation of one's life by another
is the root of Humbert's sin against Lolita.
How did Khomeini become Iran's
solipsizer? Discuss how Sanaz, Nassrin,
Azin and the rest of the girls are part of
a generation with no past.” (Lolita
Section, p. 76)
“Lolita” Section
For Tonight…
Dr. Nafisi describes Humbert, the “poet/villain” of
Lolita in the following way:
“ Like the best defense attorneys, who dazzle with
their rhetoric and appeal to our higher sense
of morality, Humbert exonerates himself by
implicating his victim—…” (42)
Reread chapter 13 in the “Lolita” section.
Compare the ideology and methodology of
Humbert and one other character from a work
we have read this year.
“Gatsby” Section (pp. 79-154)
1. On her first day teaching at the University
of Tehran, Dr. Nafisi began class with the
questions, "What should fiction
accomplish? Why should anyone read at
all?" What are your own answers? How
does fiction force us to question what we
often take for granted? (Gatsby Section,
p. 94).
“Gatsby” Section (pp. 79-154)
2. Dr. Nafisi teaches that the novel is a
sensual experience of another world
which appeals to the reader's capacity
for compassion. Do you agree that
"empathy is at the heart of the novel"?
How has this book affected your
understanding of the impact of the
novel? (Gatsby Section, p. 111)
“Gatsby” Section (pp. 79-154)
3. During the Gatsby trial Zarrin charges Mr. Nyazi
with the inability to "distinguish fiction from
reality." How does Mr. Nyazi's conflation of the
fictional and the real relate to theme of the
blind censor? Describe similar instances within
a democracy like the United States when art
was censored for its "dangerous" impact upon
society. (Gatsby Section, p. 128)
“Gatsby” Section (pp. 79-154)
4. Dr. Nafisi writes: "It was not until I had reached home
that I realized the true meaning of exile." How do her
conceptions of home conflict with those of her
husband, Bijan, who is reluctant to leave Tehran? Also,
compare Mahshid's feeling that she "owes" something
to Tehran and belongs there to Mitra and Nassrin's
desires for freedom and escape. Discuss how the
changing and often discordant influences of memory,
family, safety, freedom, opportunity and duty define
our sense of home and belonging. (Gatsby Section, p.
145)
“Gatsby” Section
For Tonight…
“I explained that most great works of the
imagination were meant to make you feel like
a stranger in your own home. The best fiction
always forced us to question what we took for
granted. It questioned traditions and
expectations when they seemed too
immutable.” (94)
Explain Dr. Nafisi’s statement. Why should fiction
make us feel, at times, uncomfortable? What
does an author gain by subverting the very
traditions of his readers?
“James” Section (pp. 155-254)
1. Explain what Dr. Nafisi means when she
says people, “like myself had become
irrelevant.” Compare her way of dealing
with her irrelevance to her magician's
self-imposed exile. (James Section, pp.
167-176)
“James” Section (pp. 155-254)
2. Compare attitudes toward the veil held by men,
women and the government in the Islamic
Republic of Iran. How was Dr. Nafisi's
grandmother's choice to wear the chador
marred by the political significance it had
gained? Also, describe Mahshid's conflicted
feelings as a Muslim who already observed the
veil but who nevertheless objected to its
political enforcement. (James Section, p. 192)
“James” Section (pp. 155-254)
3. Fanatics like Mr. Ghomi, Mr. Nyazi and Mr. Bahri
consistently surprised Dr. Nafisi by displaying
absolute hatred for Western literature — a
reaction she describes as a "venom uncalled
for in relation to works of fiction." What are
their motivations? Do you, like Dr. Nafisi, think
that people like Mr. Ghomi attack because they
are afraid of what they don't understand? Why
is ambiguity such a dangerous weapon to
them? (James Section, p. 195)
“James” Section (pp. 155-254)
4. In what ways had Ayatollah Khomeini
"turned himself into a myth" for the
people of Iran? (James Section, p. 246)
“Austen” Section (pp. 255-340)
1. “Personal and political are interdependent but not one
and the same. The realm of imagination is a bridge
between them, constantly refashioning one in terms of
the other. … it was perhaps not surprising that the
Islamic Republic’s first task had been to blur the lines
and boundaries between the personal and political
thereby destroying both.” (Austen Section, p. 273)
Why does Dr. Nafisi believe that what is personal must be
separate from what is political? What protections from
our government do we have expressly written in the
Constitution to keep these lines from blurring? How
does the combination of the “personal” and “political”
destroy both the public and private arenas of a
person’s life?