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Bastante mejor de lo que me esperaba, y genial para conocer un poco más sobre la literatura iraní contemporánea.
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Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks
Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran
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In a direct, frank, and intimate exploration of Iranian literature and society, scholar, teacher, and poet Fatemeh Keshavarz challenges popular perceptions of Iran as a society bereft of vitality and joy. Her fresh perspective on present-day Iran provides a rare insight into this rich culture alive with artistic expression but virtually unknown to most Americans.
Keshavarz introduces readers to two modern Iranian women writers whose strong and articulate voices belie the stereotypical perception of Iranian women as voiceless victims in a country of villains. She follows with a lively critique of the recent best-seller Reading Lolita in A Memoir in Books , which epitomizes what Keshavarz calls the "New Orientalist narrative," a view marred by stereotype and prejudice more often tied to current geopolitical conflicts than to an understanding of Iran.
Blending in firsthand glimpses of her own life--from childhood memories in 1960s Shiraz to her present life as a professor in America--Keshavarz paints a portrait of Iran depicting both cultural depth and intellectual complexity. With a scholar's expertise and a poet's hand, she helps amplify the powerful voices of contemporary Iranians and leads readers toward a deeper understanding of the country's past and present.
Keshavarz introduces readers to two modern Iranian women writers whose strong and articulate voices belie the stereotypical perception of Iranian women as voiceless victims in a country of villains. She follows with a lively critique of the recent best-seller Reading Lolita in A Memoir in Books , which epitomizes what Keshavarz calls the "New Orientalist narrative," a view marred by stereotype and prejudice more often tied to current geopolitical conflicts than to an understanding of Iran.
Blending in firsthand glimpses of her own life--from childhood memories in 1960s Shiraz to her present life as a professor in America--Keshavarz paints a portrait of Iran depicting both cultural depth and intellectual complexity. With a scholar's expertise and a poet's hand, she helps amplify the powerful voices of contemporary Iranians and leads readers toward a deeper understanding of the country's past and present.
174 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1,2007
iran,
This edition
- Format
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174 pages, Hardcover
- Published
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January 1, 2007 by Univ of North Carolina Pr
- ISBN
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9780807831090
- ASIN
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0807831093
- Language
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English
About the author
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Fatemeh Keshavarz is an Iranian scholar, poet, and academic specializing in Persian studies and the works of Rumi. Since 2012, she has been the Roshan Chair of Persian Studies and Director of the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland. Previously, she taught for two decades at Washington University in St. Louis, where she chaired the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures.
Born and raised in Shiraz, Iran, Keshavarz earned her B.A. from Shiraz University before completing her M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies at the University of London. Her scholarship includes works such as Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1998), Recite in the Name of the Red Rose (2006), and Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran (2007), which critiques Western portrayals of Iranian society. She has also written poetry in both Persian and English.
A vocal advocate for peace and cultural education, Keshavarz received the Hershel Walker 'Peace and Justice' Award in 2008 and spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on the role of cultural education in world peace. That same year, she was featured in the Peabody Award-winning NPR program Speaking of Faith: The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi.
Born and raised in Shiraz, Iran, Keshavarz earned her B.A. from Shiraz University before completing her M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies at the University of London. Her scholarship includes works such as Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1998), Recite in the Name of the Red Rose (2006), and Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran (2007), which critiques Western portrayals of Iranian society. She has also written poetry in both Persian and English.
A vocal advocate for peace and cultural education, Keshavarz received the Hershel Walker 'Peace and Justice' Award in 2008 and spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on the role of cultural education in world peace. That same year, she was featured in the Peabody Award-winning NPR program Speaking of Faith: The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi.
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Rating(4.2 / 5.0, 60 votes)
5 stars
29(48%)
4 stars
13(22%)
3 stars
18(30%)
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A quick touch of Irani cultural history and what is currently happening there with books and culture. I enjoyed getting a different perspective on what is happening in Irani culture and literature. This was a positive look at what has happened centuries ago as well as the present. I liked being introduced to writers who lived centuries ago and those who write today. I enjoyed the look at Fatemeh Keshavarz's family and the vignettes she shared of her uncles. She brought light to the topic instead of the negative which we are usually given. Well written. It made me think. I would like to read some of the ancient authors and today's Irani authors.
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I decided I needed another view of the narrative so after I read "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi I decided to read this book. This is really an academic paper, a critique/memoir, if you will but it is the best damn academic paper I have ever read in my life. The name the author uses "New Orientalist" brings about a different image to me which made reading this book confusing but I think everyone should read this after reading RLT because having only one side told/read is not good at all. We should make an effort to hear all points of view. This book brought up a lot of questions and concerns about RLT that I did not have while reading RLT. I was super sucked into RLT and now I see I need to take what Nafisi writes with a grain of salt. The factual errors the author found in RLT and rebuked on page 138 stood out to me the most. Keshavarz is right, RLT tells a narrative/ adopts atone regarding Iran that does not leave anything positive for the reader to read (138-139). There cannot all be bad, there must be good too and that is exactly what Keshavarz proves.
I liked how the author challenged the stories/events in RLT and the way she wrote what she did. I enjoyed the author's stories about jasmine and stars and particularly the one at the end of the book regarding the author's father and reading and reciting poetry together.
I liked how the author challenged the stories/events in RLT and the way she wrote what she did. I enjoyed the author's stories about jasmine and stars and particularly the one at the end of the book regarding the author's father and reading and reciting poetry together.
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I'm really glad I read this right after I read Reading Lolita in Tehran. By themselves, they were both 3 stars, but I think together they kind of enhanced each other. I'm bumping RLiT up to four stars as well.
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Dr Keshavarz has done us a great service with her thoughtful, compassionate approach. The book goes a long way in showing us how much we "learn" from things left unsaid, and how much our understanding of a topic can be based on pre-selected evidence that is conducive to our expectations. What I really appreciate is that she not only points out the gaps and distortions in "Reading Lolita"'s presentation of Iranian society, she supplements and fills out the narrative with her stories of "jasmine and stars," the touching, accessible details of life in Iran that are rarely celebrated in literature.
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I think the critique of Reading Lolita in Tehran was spot on, and the review of Women Without Men was very good. However, the stories about the author's father and two uncles were weak and not interesting.
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İt's more a 2.5 than a 3. İ'm feeling a bit conflicted about this book: it set out to talk about Orientalism in the media treatment of İran in the present day, but then changed towards trying to convince the american reader that iranians are human beings, which 1) should be clear anyway 2) makes it feel like the position she's arguing against has any merit to it and 3) prevents her from being critical with the iranian government in order to not risk the objective of the book. Her claim to stay out of politics and ideology felt somewhat disingenuous – you can't talk about the iranian revolution & global politics about islam without positioning yourself politically in some way. İt was, however, an interesting insight into her own social group, which is iranian americans who can afford to be politically neutral, which is why İ ended up giving 3 stars instead of 2. İt's still a very interesting read, the points she makes about New Orientalism are good points, but it has to be read critically. Also very nice if you'd like an introduction to persian literature & poetry.
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Regarding Jasmine and Stars: Reading more than Lolita in Tehran, I should have read this book years ago; it’s been sitting on my shelf for at least six years. In fact, I should have read this book as soon as I saw the Stephen Kinzer blurb on the back. It’s a book about literature, it’s a book about poetry, it’s a book about life, it’s a book about geopolitics, it’s a book about gender relations, it’s a book about a particular place (Iran), and it’s a book—surprisingly enough—about Scripture. Dr Fātemeh Keshāvarz has a remarkable gift for anecdote; and it’s her warm, personal voice that elevates this book from merely ‘good’ to remarkable and sublime.
It is not, I hasten to add, easy. It is in fact quite a challenging text. While you are reading it, you can get the distinct impression that you are reading three books at once. That impression is not, on its face, wrong. Jasmine and Stars is all three: a devastating and trenchant critique of a particular book (Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, which she refers to by its acronym of RLT); a literary survey of modern Iranian cultural output, with a studied emphasis on female poets and novelists; and a touching personal memoir of the author and her family in Iran...
The full review may be read here, at Skeireins.
It is not, I hasten to add, easy. It is in fact quite a challenging text. While you are reading it, you can get the distinct impression that you are reading three books at once. That impression is not, on its face, wrong. Jasmine and Stars is all three: a devastating and trenchant critique of a particular book (Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, which she refers to by its acronym of RLT); a literary survey of modern Iranian cultural output, with a studied emphasis on female poets and novelists; and a touching personal memoir of the author and her family in Iran...
The full review may be read here, at Skeireins.
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