MELUS Special Issue

Call for Papers for a Special Issue on Iranian American Literature

 

We are inviting proposals for a special issue on Iranian American Literature, projected for publication in 2008. The explosion in memoirs written by Iranian women in the last few years has provided an unprecedented literary introduction into the lives and experiences of Iranians, whether exiles, immigrants, or in several cases, second-generation Iranian Americans.

This special issue of MELUS will focus on the emerging literature of Iranian Americans, (written by both women and men) and will explore the relationship between literature and Iranian immigration and the politics of US-Iranian relations in the second half of the 20^th century and the emerging literature of this community at the start of the 21^st century.  Possible topics might include:

• Memoir and Women's Narratives

• The Fiction of the Iranian Revolution

• The Return Narrative to Iran

• Growing Up Iranian/Growing Up American

• Expatriates and Exiles

• Iranian American Poetry

We welcome proposals that discuss the emergence of Iranian American literature (including Canada) and explore the role of literature in creating a public Iranian identity in North America. Please submit a 2-page abstract to Persis Karim at pkarim@helios.sjsu.edu and Nasrin Rahimieh at nasrin@mcmaster.ca by no later than April 15, 2006.  

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