Orientalism Versus Occidentalism: Literary and Cultural Imaging Between France and Iran Since the Islamic Revolution

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At a time when Iran is represented in the French media as a rogue state obsessed with its nuclear programme, and whilst France is portrayed in the Iranian media as a decadent and imperialist country, this book examines the ways in which these representations and stereotypes are shared, nuanced, or overcome beyond the sphere of the fourth estate. Here, Laetitia Nanquette examines the functions, processes and mechanisms of stereotyping and imagining the 'Other' that have pervaded the literary traditions of France and Iran when writing about each other. Orientalism versus Occidentalism explores the extent to which orientalism and occidentalism have each influenced and are in turn perpetuated in the texts of both French and Iranian authors. And conversely, it also looks at the consequences of attempts by authors to distance themselves from these two discourses. After both using and questioning the dichotomy of orientalism and occidentalism, Nanquette details how France and Iran represent each other in the contemporary period through their narrative literature in prose, by listing and classifying all the ways in which they do so. She examines the image of the Other in the works of writers such as Goli Taraqi, Bernard Ollivier and Marjane Satrapi. In order to explore this, Nanquette draws upon a broad range of literary genres such as the historical novel, travel writing and autobiography. This exploration of the literary traditions of the relationship between France and Iran is used to shed light on the cultural history of Franco-Iranian relations and on contemporary socio-political realities. With themes that feed into popular debates about the nature of orientalism and occidentalism, and how the two interact, this book will be vital for researchers of Middle Eastern literature and its relationship with writings from the West, as well as those working on the cultures of the Middle East.

Reviews

' Laetitia Nanquette has taken a neglected topic, the mutual representation of France and Iran in French and Persian narrative prose literature of the last thirty years and subjected it to a forensic analysis of great skill and subtlety. Guiding the reader gently through the different categories into which she has divided the eighty or more texts that relate to the theme of stereotyping and Othering, she moves from a discussion of the essentialised illusions of the Other and finally, through carefully defined stages, to the hybridity and the acceptance of alterity found in some recent fiction. It is rare to find a scholar so well read in imagology, post-colonial and post-modernist literary theory, who can express difficult concepts clearly and logically, whilst showing at the same time a sophisticated sense of the nuances of Persian prose. Laetitia Nanquette has produced a work of unusual maturity and insight.' John Gurney, Emeritus Fellow, Wadham College, University of Oxford ' Laetitia Nanquette's comparative study of imaging between the French and the Iranians since 1979 is both topical and refreshing. It is topical because it sheds light from a literary angle on Iran's complex love-hate relationship with its most significant non-Anglo western interlocutor. Nanquette's work is refreshing in that it avoids seeing occidentalism as a perfect mirror of orientalism, thereby opening a space in which mutual cultural Othering can be contested. Nanquette's exploration of the varied and often fraught modes of writing adopted in the Iranian diaspora adds to our understanding of the challenges faced by exiled Iranian writers, and their quest for self-expression.' Dominic Parviz Brookshaw, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Persian Literature, Stanford University and co-editor of Forugh Farrokhzad, Poet of Modern Iran: Iconic Woman and Feminine Pioneer of New Persian Poetry (I.B.Tauris, 2010)

Author Bio

Laetitia Nanquette holds a PhD in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.