Minor Literature in Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, The Republic of Imagination, and Read Dangerously

Abstract

Following the 1979 Revolution, the shifting sociopolitical conditions and the growing need for self expression amid repression led to a significant rise in the genre of life writing during the post-Revolutionary era in Iran. Free from the constraints of censorship, women writers, particularly those in the diaspora, intertwined their personal stories with broader societal issues, and found a voice through life writing in a language other than their native tongue. Thus, life writing emerged as a vital platform for these writers to engage in political and cultural debate. In this context, Azar Nafisi’s autobiographical works can be situated within Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “minor literature.” Defined by its emergence within a major language, minor literature is marked by the deterritorialization of language, the inseparability of the personal and the political, and resonance that speaks to a collective experience. Nafisi’s bibliomemoirs, Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), The Republic of Imagination (2014), and Read Dangerously (2022), embody these traits through their fusion of literary criticism with autobiographical reflection. Complementing this outline, Gillian Whitlock’s concept of “soft power” illuminates how Nafisi’s works act as cultural tools that amplify suppressed narratives through their political depth. Writing from an exilic position, Nafisi engages in intertextual dialogues with canonical authors, transforming literature into a site of political resistance, identity reconstruction, and cross-cultural solidarity. This thesis argues that Nafisi’s bibliomemoirs embody the dynamics of minor literature and serve as tools of “soft power” through the transformative power of life writing.