Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / For generations, the Iranian psyche has been scarred by the vicissitudes of history and politics. A series of radical events, among them the 1953 CIA-led coup that ushered in the Pahlavi regime, the Islamic Revolution of 1978, the hostage crisis of 1979, the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have caused emotional and physical upheavals in the lives of Iranians, scattering them across the planet, fracturing their once-sacred family units, and tangling their personal and collective identities. The twelve stories in Azadi examine these upheavals in fictional form. Against the backdrop of this swath of history, the characters in the stories struggle to retain their sense of themselves, not only as individuals but also as members of a family and a culture. The collection opens a compelling and much-needed window into a rich culture that is both under-represented and superficially depicted in literature from the English-speaking world. / 2031-01-01T00:00:00Z

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Notre Dame, 2009. / Thesis directed by Donald B. Pope-Davis for the Department of Psychology. "December 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-77).