Missing Persians : discovering voices in Iranian cultural history / Nasrin Rahimieh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rahimieh, Nasrin.

Series:

Gender, culture, and politics in the Middle East

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intellectual life.

Persian prose literature.

Discourse analysis--Social aspects.

Iranians--Ethnic identity.

Iranians.

Iran--Civilization.

Iran.

Civilization.

Discourse analysis--Social aspects--Iran.

Discourse analysis.

Persian prose literature--History and criticism.

Iran--Intellectual life.

Physical Description:

xiii, 191 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2001.

Summary:

"Missing Persians" serves to articulate in elegant, vibrant prose the disparate, dispersed, and displaced narratives of five Persian subjects. Nasrin Rahimieh's complex and nuanced arguments effectively demonstrate her five figures's links to a stable Persian identity -- complicated by their experiences of travel, exile, conversion, and social change.

Rahimieh delineates the captivating histories of "missing" Persians from the sixteenth century to modern times, and defines the arbitrary genetic boundaries that isolate Persian biographies, autobiographies, travelogues, and social histories. In her analysis, the author daringly and insightfully calls into question Western concepts of discipline.

Even as it sheds new light on crucial points in cultural self-definition, Missing Persians offers a fresh look at traditional institutions, the role of women, and Persia's turbulent struggle to enter modernity on its own terms.

Contents:

1. A Conversion Gone Awry 21

2. The Tribulations of an Early Tourist 39

3. A New Menu for Alterity 71

4. An Armchair Traveler's Journeys Around the Self 105

5. A Performer Manque 135.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-176) and index.

ISBN:

081562753X

0815628374

OCLC:

46731132