So far, textual hetero-representations of the Romani people (usually called `Gypsies' by the non-Roma) have focused on their foreignness and alleged `non-conformity' to the dominant order. Such depictions, conflating history and myth, art and reality, promote the perception of an unbridgeable divide between the `primitive', `illiterate' Roma and the `civilized' society. In this respect, the forging of a fictional `Gypsy' identity can be seen as an ethnic strategy aimed at endorsing harsh policies of oppression and social marginalization of the Roma. The recent rise of *a Romani written literature has shown that, contrary to common belief, the Roma cannot simply be defined as people `without writing'. This thesis aims to highlight the complex features of their literature, characterized by an irreducible plurality of voices and styles which is in striking contrast with the rigid, monolithic structure of the conventional images of the 'Gypsy'. The intertextual, hybrid features of Romani literature seem to suggest alternative ways of looking at Romani identity which substantially undermine the rigid binarism of ethnocentric definitions of the 'Gypsy'. More specifically, the study of Romani literature enables us to view Romani textual hetero- and auto-representations not as irreconcilable, mutually exclusive terms, but in the light of their interconnections and mutual influences. The adoption of a dynamic, intercultural approach is a crucial factor in our understanding of the complex features of Romani identity, and may ultimately contribute to a profound (and long due) reassessment of the troubled Roma/Gağe relationship.

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This thesis challenges the silenced voices of women in the Iranian written literary tradition and proposes a fresh evaluation of contemporary Iranian women's poetry. Because the presence of female poets in Iranian literature is a relatively recent phenomenon, there are few published studies describing and analysing Iranian women's poetry; most of the critical studies that do exist were completed in the last three decades after the Revolution in 1979. Addressing the ethical questions of gender in Persian literature by women, this study seeks to offer a systematic and historical reading of women's poetry in dialogical terms. It argues that Luce Irigaray's deconstructive method can be used productively as a means to explore the ways in which women deliver a subversive discourse of gender relations in Iran. Irigaray's transcendental theories of the duality of subjectivity, masculine and feminine, and the culture of dialogic exchange between different subjects will challenge existing readings of Iranian women's poetry. This will be achieved using Irigarayian modes of resistance (mimesis, masquerade, strategic essentialism, utopian ideals, and employing novel language or structures of expression and subjectivity) across the three main conjunctures in the history of Iranian women's poetry. The thesis presents an Irigarayian reading of selected women poets within the constitutional period, the Pahlavi era, and the post-revolutionary period. Through my assessment of these poems, a discussion begins which starts with the lived reality of female repression, and finishes with a prospect for women's freedom and enunciation. I will argue, using Irigaray, that it is essential for Iranian women to create a “house of language”, a place in which they can practice living and articulating, so that they can achieve self-enunciation and the “sensible transcendental”.

This dissertation traces the substantial expansion of Western interest in contemporary Iranian art over the past two decades. In reading Iranian artifacts, it argues that Western disciplinary frames, most specifically art history and criticism, circumscribe the heterogeneity of Iranian contemporary art. Submitted to Western frames of legibility, the multivalent aesthetic properties of contemporary Iranian art is reduced to readily consumable social, political, and ethical messages. Burdened by the need to speak for Iranian society as a whole, the diverse aesthetic economies of Iranian artifacts are curtailed and reconfigured so that they align with Euro–American understandings of meaning, value, aspiration, and desire.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University. / Cover title. Vita. General index and list of Vedic k-words: p. 75-104.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of London, 1968. / BLDSC reference no.: DX196853.

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No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University. / Cover title. Vita. General index and list of Vedic k-words: p. 75-104.