Literary Tropes and Ambiguity in the Iranian Revolution

One of the important distinctions of the Iranian revolutionary movement was in the way it expressed itself through allegorical language of poetry and literature. Although a radical political discourse informed the movement, it was those symbolic references to "the good society" that generated an unprecedented mass participation in the revolution. Through an autobiographical contemplation, in this talk I would raise a number of historiographical questions on how to write a history of a revolution that allows us to capture the spirit of how revolutions are lived and experienced.

SPEAKER: Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi Professor of Near Eastern Studies. Director, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. Princeton University.

DATE: November 7, 2019 6pm Jameson Gallery, Friedl 115, Duke East Campus. Light reception prior to the talk starts at 5:30pm

Co-sponsors: Franklin Humanities Institute, Program in Literature, AMES, Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Duke, Duke University Middle East Center