Reading Lolita in Tehran
~A Memoir in Books
Cathy, Carlos, Hegel,
Jay, Jenny, Silvia
Background Information
General Introduction
1. The Book is the memoir
of author.
2. Intellectual and
influential family
3. Was sent to England &
Switzerland & U.S. and
received a PHD in English
&American literature
4. Teaching in Tehran
University
5. Emigrate to U.S. in 1997
Divided into four parts
1. Lolita –
2. Gatsby3. James4. Austen-
Historical Background
A. Shah regime and Pahlavi’s Westernized
policy
B. People’s dissatisfaction
C. Fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini’s
attempt to overthrow Shah Regime
D. 1979 Shah regime overthrown, Islamic
Republic take office
Nafisi’s Experience
A. Back to Tehran from the States in 1978
B. Taught Literature in Tehran University in 1979,
when Islamic Revolution broke out
C. Islamic Republic implemented strict rule on
people
D. Life wasn’t better than before
The Great Gatsby: Introduction
• Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Publish Time: April 10, 1925
• Reflect Fitzgerald’s perceptions
of the era which he lives in
through the eyes of Nick in The
Great Gatsby - a seductive,
exciting lifestyle in a
unrestrained materialist America
• On of the greatest literary
documents of 1920s which he
dubbed “the Jazz Age”
The Great Gatsby: Main
Characters & Summary
• Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby: Nick moves to New York
and builds a close relationship between Gatsby
• Gatsby and Daisy: Gatsby knew Daisy in the past and still
in love with her although she’s already married to Tom
• Tom, Jasty and Daisy: Discovering the romantic
relationship between Daisy and Gatsby, Tom claims
Gatsby a criminal.
• Myrtle and Geroge: On their way home, the car accidently
hits and kills Myrtle. Though knowing that it’s Daisy who
drives the car, Tom tells Geroge that Gatsby is the killer.
Angrily Geroge goes to Gatsby’s house and shoots him
dead at the pool.
The Great Gatsby
A. Main Theme: The American Dream and its
Disillusion.
1. Jay Gatsby: poor young man  wealthy
charlatan
2. Death of Gatsby
B. Reason for being the title of the 2nd section:
1. Dreams
2. Obsession with the past
3. Indifference
The American Dream
A. Basis: “All men are created equal” –
“Declaration of Independence”
B. 1st appeared in James Truslow Adams’ “The
Epic of America”
1. “The American Dream” is the dream of a land in
which life should be better and richer and fuller
for everyone, with opportunity for each
according to ability or achievement.
C. Criticism:
1. It has become the pursuit of materialism.
2. Unattainable for the working class.
Dreams
A.
B.
C.
D.
Jay Gatsby  Daisy Buchanan
Iranians  Revolution
Ideals vs. Reality
“Dreams, Mr. Nyazi, are perfect ideals,
complete in themselves. How can you
impose them on a constantly changing ,
imperfect, incomplete reality?” (144)
E. Gatsby: Death of Gatsby and Betrayal of
Daisy
F. Iran: Execution, Prohibition, reimposition of
the veil
Obsession with the Past
A. Gatsby: Daisy
“He talked a lot about the past, and I
gathered that he wanted to recover
something……His life as been confused and
disordered since then, but if he could once
return to a certain starting place and go over
it slowly, he could find out what that thing
was…” (142)
B. Iran: the Islamic Regime
“We in ancient countries have our past – we
obsess over our the past.” (109)
Carelessness (Indifference)
A. Betrayal of Daisy, absence at Gatsby’s funeral
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy –
that smashed up things and creatures then
retreat back into their money or their vast
carelessness” (131)
B. Ignorance of human rights
“After a while even the revolution found its
rhythm: the violence, the execution, public
confessions to crimes that had never been
committed, judges who coolly talked about
amputating a thief’s hand or legs and killing
political prisoners because there was not
enough room for them now in jail.” (100)
Nafisi and her teaching career
Intro.
A. started her teaching
career in the English
Department at the
University of Tehran
B. taught the comparative
study of the literature
of the twenties &
thirties, the proletarians
and the nonproletarians
Teaching Materials
A. Writers:
1. revolutionary writers
2. Fitzgerald: ”the best person of the twenties”
3. Mark Twain: “the father of American
subversive
literature”
4. Mike Gold: “dean of U.S. Proletarian
Literature ”
5. Maxim Gorky: founder of the socialist
realism literary method / a political activist
6. Hemingway: “classic of American literature”
B. Works:
1. Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 1925)
2. A Farewell of Arms (Hemingway, 1929)
3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(Mark Twain, 1884)
Opinion toward Literature
A. Theodor Adorno: “The highest form of morality is not to
feel at home at one’s own home.” (p.94, line12)
the most great works of imagination makes people feel like a
stranger in your own home
people feel unsettled, uneasy
questions the traditions & expectation which we took for granted
consider the world with different views
B. “Don’t go chasing after the grand
theme, the ideas behind the story must
come to you through the experience of
the novel and not as something tacked
on to it. ” (p.109)
C. “A novel is not an allegory.”
D. “If you don’t enter the world, hold your
breath with the characters and become
involved in their destiny, you won’t be
able to empathize, and empathy is at the
heart of the novel. ” (p.111)
Nafisi and her students
Intro.
A. At that time, students were
differentiated by their political
affiliations.
the Muslims
the leftists’ women
the monarchists (non-political students)
• “Arguing with my leftist students, I had a
funny feeling that I was talking to a younger
version of myself, and the gleam I saw in that
familiar strangers’ face frightened me.” (p.113)
Students
A. Mr. Bahri: Muslim/ the mixture of arrogance & shyness/ later
became the head of the Muslim Students Association
B. Mr. Nyazi: didn’t want to miss anything in class, thought there
was no difference between the fiction and the facts of his life
C. Mahtab: one of the most radical students
(“Mathab’s face slowly faded and is transformed into the image of
another girl, also young, in Norman, Oklahoma.” p.113)
D. Zarrin & Vida: very different from all the students, didn’t
belong to any group
• discussing Gatsby & Fitzgerald with Zarrin & Vida:
like children sharing coveted stolen cherries
never became more intimate (p.96)
• having heated conversation with Mr. Bahri:
Nafisi wanted to shake his hands for goodwill & friendship
Mr. Bahri withdrew both of his hands back because of the
“Muslim rules”
*”no Muslim man would or should touch a namahram woman–
a woman other than his wife, mother, or sister” (p.98)
Nafisi V.S Mr. Bahri
A. Mr. Bahri as a revolutionary:
1.
asking Nafisi to have more revolutionary materials and
writers (p.98)
2. tried to persuade Nafisi in a patient, dogged way
3. baffled Hemingway, felt ambivalent about Fitzgerald,
but love Mark Twain
“I loved and admired Twain but thought all
writers were national writers and that there was
no such things as National Writers.” by Nafisi
(p. 104)
• Bahri tried to explain to Nafisi about the political
Islam →Nafisi rebuffed him and questioned him
about his loyalties (p.103)
• Bahri thought it made sense for three faculty
members to be expelled →Nafisi questioned him
of the reason why students were demanding new
death sentences everyday →Bahri: “They were
on trial for their past deeds. This was no game, it
was revolution.” (p.119)
• Nafisi: “Be careful with your dreams; one day
they may just come true. (…) I could have told
you to learn from Gatsby, from the lonely,
isolated Gatsby. (…) You seem to be in need of
knowing, Gatsby is killed.” (p.115)
• Nafisi: “I would like to know where Mr. Bahri is
right now... and ask him: how did it all turn
out?…Is this you dream of revolution?.....
What shall we do with these corpses on our
hands?” (p.153)
The Trial
A. Cause: Mr. Nyazi came to inform Nafisi he
against The Great Gatsby
1. Immoral & poisonous
2. Public prosecution in these days
B. Posts of the trial: No one volunteered to any of
the posts
1. Prosecutor – Mr. Nyazi
2. The judge – Mr. Farzan
3. Defense – Zarrin
4. The book – Nafisi
5. Jury – the rest of the classmates
1. Prosecutor’s points: “ As a Muslim, I cannot
accept Gatsby.”
a. A rape of Iranian culture
b. Violation of morality
c. No virtuous woman in the whole novel
d. Corruption of American society (adultery,
cheating, lies, dishonesty)
2. Judge’s points:
a. Fitzgerald wrote for money & approves of
the rich
b. Reject Western materialisms
3. Defense’s points:
a. Fiction vs. reality (moral or immoral)
b. Characters are judged in terms of honesty (by
the judge – Nick)
c. Carelessness (the rich in the novel) – A
reminder of other careless people
4. The book:
a. Imagination = empathy
b. Learn about how complicated those issues are
5. Jury’s points:
a. Leftist activists: Know immorality of
American culture & understand the enemy
(similar with Nyazi’s condemnation)
b. Radical students: It distracted them from
their duties as revolutionaries
c. Many were silent: Lack of self-confidence to
voice their points; Could not say why they
like the book
C. Students’ reaction:
1. Still arguing even after the trial
2. Waylaid Nafisi to talk about Gatsby, and
present their views
3. Handed in papers on the subject voluntarily
>> Students got in on the discussion
•