The spaces in between : a postcolo study of reading lolita in Tehran

Abstract EN

The paper discusses the importance of those in-between spaces that hybrids, such as Azar Nafisi, find themselves in.

A hybrid's function should be to bring cultures and nations together, closing the chasm between the self and its true home.

However, in Reading Lolita in Tehran Nafisi accomplishes the opposite goal when she widens this chasm between the self and the traditions and culture it sprang from.

By presenting the West as the privileged norm against which the East should measure itself, Nafisi alienates her students from their true home only to offer them a dream that is at best imaginary and fragmented.

By using Postcolonial theories of the exile put forward by Edward Said and Salman Rushdie, and theories of the subaltern by Homi Bhabha and Chandta Mohanty, the paper will explore the contention that in offering her students an escape from their presumed victimization in Iran, Nafisi exposes them to a more intense kind of abuse.

Presenting them in her own image of the westernized Iranian, Nafisi victimized them so that their identities are lost and their exile is permanent.