Iran isn't a fan of Persepolis

Marjane Strapi's graphic novel, Persepolis, was adapted into an animated film which won the jury prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in 2007. Apparently the leading figures from Iran didn't appreciate the prize.  

Mehdi Kalhor, a cultural adviser to the Iranian prexy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said: "Islamophobia in Western drama started in France, and producing and highlighting the anti-Iranian film 'Persepolis' in Cannes falls in line with Islamophobia,"


"Ali Akbar Velayati, former foreign minister and adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the French-produced film is another example of U.S. attempts to 'encourage forces opposed to the authorities in any way possible.'"


Upon recieving her prize, Satrapi dedicated the victory "to all Iranians."

Mary Lou Emery's Views on Jean Rhys

In her literary criticism "Modern Crosscurrents," Mary Lou Emery investigates Jean Rhys as a writer and how her identity could have translated into her writings.

Emery identifies Rhys as a female, West Indian writer who does her work under the influence of European modernism; she sees Rhys participation in literary movements with such larger social contexts as very influential. In her analysis, Emery considers two approaches. The first approach considers European literary ideas of “character” and “self.” The second approach considers how Rhys’ ideologies built from identity can be conflicting and at the same time critical of the “colonizing countries’ concepts and values even if governed by them.”

Emery believes that Jean Rhys’ life experiences, “her upbringing in Domenica, various jobs in England with traveling theatrical companies followed by a disastrous love affair, a marriage, and a period spent wandering in Europe,” were very impactful of the novel. Rhys was often described as an “outsider among outsiders,” as a female writer and living in a world dominated by men. Rhys was married three times, gave birth to two children, and struggled with alcohol dependence among other social issues. She became marginalized.



How do you think these issues show up in “Wide Sargasso Sea”?

An Early Perspective on Through the Arc of the Rain Forest

I am currently 25 pages into Karen Tei Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, and I am hooked. After drudging through Faust, this book feels like a breath of fresh air. Reading through each character's introductory chapter I love how each character seems that they have some kind of supernatural tie to nature and to each other. Each seems to have a finite purpose in their lives and I'm very interested to see how their storylines bring them together. A point which I found to be particularly interesting is the POV from which the narrator is telling the story. Although he/she/it(?) floats only six inches in front of one of the character's face, this tiny ball presents a very original, otherworldly, and omniscient point of view. Between this class and my Lit 499 I've felt like I've been reading many books at a very quick pace which I haven't really been able to enjoy, but thus far I am really enjoying this book and I look forward to seeing where this tiny floating ball of a narrator takes me.

Candide's Battle on Religion

So far I've read up to chapter 22 of Candide, and while its protagonist has quite literally been murdering a number of religious figures, it seems as though Voltaire is satirically attacking the idea of religion simultaneously. Voltaire seems to look at religion as a means for people to carry out very unholy actions. The driving point in many of the wars, which eventually lead to raping and pillaging in the book, seems to be religious differences. While religion and war run rampant in these awful lands of Europe, when Candide and Cacambo venture to the seemingly ideal land of Eldorado, where there is no violence, there are also no religious fanatics. Voltaire writes:

At length Candide, whose taste still ran to metaphysics, asked through Cacambo whether the people of this country had any religion.
The old man flushed a little. "But how could you suppose otherwise!" he replied. "Do you takes us for ingrates?" Cacambo humbly asked what was the religion of Eldorado. The old man flushed again. "Can there be more than one religion?" he replied. "We have, I believe, the same religion as everyone else: we worship God from night till morning." -"Do you worship only one God?" asked Cacambo, who continued to act as the interpreter of Candide's doubts. - "Evidently so," said the old man, "since there are not two Gods, or three, or four. I must say that the people in your world ask some very odd questions."

The old man goes on to say: "We do not pray to him at all." "We have nothing to ask of him; he has given us everything we need; we thank him unceasingly."

Candide is astounded by this assertion, he wonders whether or not they have disputing monks, governing and burning people alive for believing otherwise. The old man is dumbfounded by Candide's questioning, because no one in Eldorado would consider persecution for religion.

What do you think of Voltaire's opinion on religion? How does he show it in Candide?

The Panchu Issue

So one of the side issues in The Home and the World was Nikhil's efforts to aid the poor man Panchu. Panchu was a poor merchant who sold foreign goods. he had his goods burned by Swadeshi enthusiasts, and his zamindar (landlord) demanded rent which he could not pay. Panchu was set to recieve an inheritance from his dead uncle that would have helped him pay off his debt, but out of nowhere a (sham?) aunt showed up and tried to claim the inheritance. Since Nikhil is busy with other things, his schoolmaster offers to resolve the issue. The old master stays with Panchu, who is also housing this aunt. The master notes that Panchu treats the aunt badly because he is unsure of her "caste," which I believe means some kind of social status. The master listens to the aunt and becomes friends with her. He begins questioning her about about her legitimacy to claim the inheritance, and out of shame she leaves. The master thinks less of Panchu because of his treatment of the aunt, but he has resolved the issue nonetheless. I feel like there is a deeper, symbolic meaning to this story that I haven't picked up on but I don't know what it is. Any thoughts?

Imaginary Homelands and Diaspora in Chinese Literature

The ideas discussed in Salman Rushdie's "Imaginary Homelands" line up perfectly with some of the books I've been reading for my Diaspora in Chinese Literature class. We just finished reading America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan. Carlos leaves his native Philippines in search of a better life in America. In "Imaginary Homelands," Rushdie writes:

"Meaning is a shaky edifice we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old films, small victories, people hated, people loved; perhaps it is because our sense of what is the case is constructed from such inadaquate materials that we defend so fiercely, even to the death."

I felt like this passage lined up almost perfectly with a passage from Bulosan's book. He writes:

"It came to me that no man--no one at all--could destroy my faith in America again. It was something that had grown out of my defeats and successes, something shaped by my struggles for a place in this vast land, digging my hands into the rich soil here and there, catching a freight to the north and south, seeking free meals in dingy gambling houses, reading a book that opened up worlds of heroic thoughts. It was something that grew out of sacrifices and loneliness of my friends, of my brothers in America and my family in the Philippines..."

While Rushdie is talking about looking back at the things he struggles to recover from his homeland, Bulosan talks about the things which have shaped the journey he has undergone in America. The comparison makes me wonder just how similar the two processes are.

Bridging the Gap

I still feel disconnected from most of the Ghalib, Mir, and Faiz ghazals, but I really like some of Adrienne Rich's works. I've found that alternating my readings between the two different styles has greatly contributed to my understanding of the form, and it has helped me notice the subtle differences in style and thought contributed in each. I feel like Rich's work is complimentary to the ghazal in that it keeps the form alive and changing. She is spreading the form to people who may not ever come across a ghazal, and for those who are studying it (like us), she helps to bridge the gap.