Not Without My Daughter

As far as literary representations of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the West are concerned, according to Farzaneh Milani, Betty Mahmoody’s best-selling Not Without My Daughter (1987) remains “the most popular book ever published in the U.S. about Iran.” Nevertheless, the book’s unprecedented popu...

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Autor principal: Hossein Nazari
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2017
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/028d59e38f6145669a8140b4eff113a2
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:028d59e38f6145669a8140b4eff113a22021-12-02T17:46:17ZNot Without My Daughter10.35632/ajis.v34i1.2732690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/028d59e38f6145669a8140b4eff113a22017-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/273https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 As far as literary representations of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the West are concerned, according to Farzaneh Milani, Betty Mahmoody’s best-selling Not Without My Daughter (1987) remains “the most popular book ever published in the U.S. about Iran.” Nevertheless, the book’s unprecedented popularity notwithstanding, it has garnered scant critical attention. Hence, as the first major literary analysis of the text, this paper sets out to illustrate how Mahmoody’s “memoir” functions within the paradigm of the well-established literary tradition of American captivity narratives. In so doing, it demonstrates how the text constitutes a site wherein the three subgenres of captivity narratives – as a religious pilgrimage, a propagandistic tract, and a sensational shocker – converge. It also analyzes the conceptualization of captivity as a condition that transcends the boundaries of the spatial and the physical. Furthermore, analysis of the text reveals how the book’s production and reception were conditioned not only by its construction within the parameters of American captivity narratives, but also by what came to be known in the West as the “Iran Hostage Crisis.” Finally, the production and reception of Not Without My Daughter is critiqued as a testament to the protean nature of American captivity narratives and the genre’s malleability, which allow it to be rehashed and reformulated to align with the dominant sociopolitical zeitgeist at the time of production. Twenty years before Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) would sing, “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” to the old Beach Boys tune “Barbara Ann,” the idea was proposed in the most popular book ever published in the US about Iran. Hossein NazariInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 34, Iss 1 (2017)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Hossein Nazari
Not Without My Daughter
description As far as literary representations of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the West are concerned, according to Farzaneh Milani, Betty Mahmoody’s best-selling Not Without My Daughter (1987) remains “the most popular book ever published in the U.S. about Iran.” Nevertheless, the book’s unprecedented popularity notwithstanding, it has garnered scant critical attention. Hence, as the first major literary analysis of the text, this paper sets out to illustrate how Mahmoody’s “memoir” functions within the paradigm of the well-established literary tradition of American captivity narratives. In so doing, it demonstrates how the text constitutes a site wherein the three subgenres of captivity narratives – as a religious pilgrimage, a propagandistic tract, and a sensational shocker – converge. It also analyzes the conceptualization of captivity as a condition that transcends the boundaries of the spatial and the physical. Furthermore, analysis of the text reveals how the book’s production and reception were conditioned not only by its construction within the parameters of American captivity narratives, but also by what came to be known in the West as the “Iran Hostage Crisis.” Finally, the production and reception of Not Without My Daughter is critiqued as a testament to the protean nature of American captivity narratives and the genre’s malleability, which allow it to be rehashed and reformulated to align with the dominant sociopolitical zeitgeist at the time of production. Twenty years before Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) would sing, “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” to the old Beach Boys tune “Barbara Ann,” the idea was proposed in the most popular book ever published in the US about Iran.
format article
author Hossein Nazari
author_facet Hossein Nazari
author_sort Hossein Nazari
title Not Without My Daughter
title_short Not Without My Daughter
title_full Not Without My Daughter
title_fullStr Not Without My Daughter
title_full_unstemmed Not Without My Daughter
title_sort not without my daughter
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2017
url https://doaj.org/article/028d59e38f6145669a8140b4eff113a2
work_keys_str_mv AT hosseinnazari notwithoutmydaughter
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