Visual and Textual Representations and Interpretations of Iranian Women in the Works of Neshat, Satrapi, and Nafisi
Date
2018-08-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0003-3489-2249
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Beliefs and assumptions about different groups of people are shaped through the representations provided through public discourses and the institutions that reproduce them, including but certainly not limited to educational institutions, mass media and the works of art and literature. As an Iranian researcher living in Canada, I am particularly interested in understanding the representations of Iranian women that saturate the consciousness of western audiences and influence public perceptions of Iranian culture, politics and experiences. I focus on works by diasporic Iranian artists and authors who have been widely published and/or exhibited in the one-third world. Using feminist intersectionality, I explore the ways in which selected and often pain-centred narratives by Shirin Neshat, Marjane Satrapi, and Azar Nafisi have rendered partial accounts of the lives of Iranian women and have been taken up in the west in ways that reinforce Orientalist views of Iran, and broader politically motivated projections involving Middle Eastern cultures more generally.
Description
Keywords
cultural representations, feminist intersectional framework, pain-centred narrative, transnational solidarity
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and Creativity
Program
Women's and Gender Studies