Berkeley Lecture Series in collaboration with Diaspora Arts Connection Presents: A Lecture by Omid Fallahazad, Novelist
Topic:
” نگاهی به روایت های آسیب اجتماعی و فرهنگی در داستان نویسی معاصر ایران”
“A look at the narratives of social and cultural trauma in modern Iranian fiction ”
Omid Fallahazad is a bilingual fiction writer. His recent novel in Farsi, Gahvareye Div (NaaKojaa, 2016) centers on house burning riots in Shiraz against Bahai’s on the eve of the Iranian Revolution and the controversies surrounding the incident. His other works in Farsi include a collection of short stories, Se Tir-baran Dar Se Dastan (H&S Media, 2016), and a best-selling young adult novella, Razi (Madreseh, 2001). Omid’s English stories has appeared in publications such as Glimmer Train, Paul Revere’s Horse, World Literature Today, and in Tremors, an anthology of Iranian-American writers. He and his wife, media artist, Rashin Fahandej, live with their daughter near Boston, Massachusetts
Lecture: Much as traumatized individuals require working through their repressed memories, societies have to deal with their collective memories of trauma by creating literature and art to anatomize the events and make sense of them. In this presentation, sifting through a handful of work by Iranian fiction writers, Omid Fallahazad reflects on accomplishments and shortcomings of their narratives of traumatic social events. He also suggests that a catalyzing interaction between censorship, socio-political demonization of certain topics, and a pre-existing intellectual baggage that most Iranian writers inherit encumbers their effort to effectively portray social and historical trauma.
Lecture in Persian