Familiar and Foreign ─ Identity in Iranian Film and Literature

Despite the Iranian government’s determined pursuance of anti-Western policies and strict conformity to religious principles, the film and literature of Iran reflect the clash between a nostalgic pride in Persian tradition and an apparent infatuation with a more Eurocentric modernity. In Familiar and Foreign, Mannani and Thompson set out to explore the tensions surrounding the ongoing formulation of Iranian identity by bringing together essays on poetry, novels, memoir, and films. These include both canonical and less widely theorized texts, as well as works of literature written in English by authors living in diaspora. Challenging neocolonialist stereotypes, these critical excursions into Iranian literature and film reveal the limitations of collective identity as it has been configured within and outside of Iran.

Veronica Thompson is an associate professor of English and dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Athabasca University.Manijeh Mannani is the chair of the Centre for Humanities and an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Athabasca University, as well as adjunct professor of comparative literature at the University of Alberta.