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As an endeavor to contribute to the burgeoning field of comparative literature, this monograph addresses the dynamic yet understudied "intertextual dialogism" between modern American literature and contemporary Iranian Cinema, pinpointing how the latter appropriates and recontextualizes instances of the former to construct and inculcate vestiges of national/gender identity on the silver screen. Drawing on Louis Montrose's catchphrase that Cultural Materialism foregrounds "the textuality of history, [and] the historicity of texts", this book contends that literary "texts" are synchronic artifacts prone to myriad intertextual and extra-textual readings and understandings, each historically conditioned. The recontextualization of Herzog, Franny and Zooey, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Death of a Salesman into contemporary Iran provides an intertextual avenue to delineate the textuality of history and the historicity of texts
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Adaptation Studies, Cultural Materialism, and Cultural Studies: An Intertextual Dialogue
3.Narrative Trajectories of National Identity in Iranian Cinema: A Historical Long Shot
4.Performing the Poetics of the Iranian Dream on the Silver Screen: Dariush Mehrjui's Appropriation of Saul Bellow's Herzog and J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey
5. Watching Tennessee Williams in Iran: The Sanctity of Family Reconstituted
6. Birth of a Salesman: Revisiting Willy Loman in Tehran
7. Conclusion
Index
About the author
Morteza Yazdanjoo is a postdoctoral researcher in English literature and Cultural Studies at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) and university lecturer. He teaches a variety of courses on English literature and Cultural Studies and is interested in interdisciplinary studies with a focus on how cinematic appropriations of world literature by Iranian cinema contribute to reflect sociocultural outlooks, values, and challenges in contemporary Iran.
Summary
As an interdisciplinary study, this book pinpoints intertextual and intercultural cross-fertilization between American literature and Iranian cinema, addressing how the latter appropriates and recontextualizes instances of the latter to construct and inculcate vestiges of national/gender identity on the silver screen.
Report
"Iranian film has become a major force in world cinema, and its sophisticated interactions with American literature have received far too little scholarly attention until now. Morteza Yazdanjoo opens up important new territory in his wide-ranging interdisciplinary study, providing fresh insights into discourses of gender, religion, identity, appropriation, narrativity, and politics as they pertain to cinema, literature, and other key areas of contemporary global culture. Scholars in many fields will welcome his work.
- David Sterritt, editor in chief, Quarterly Review of Film and Video"
