A Study of Butlerian Gender Performativity in Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Graduate Student, University of Guilan

2 Associate Professor University of Guilan

Abstract

The present study intends to investigate the contours of gender performativity in Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), which depicts Nafisi’s life experiences in Iran in the 1970s and the 1980s. Drawing upon Judith Butler’s conceptualization of gender performativity, this research probes into the notion of gender roles and gendered subjectivity during the time span Nafisi’s narrative covers. The central questions of this research are: 1. How does the contemporary codes of normativity define gender performativity in Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran? 2. How do the major characters of Nafisi’s memoir react to their gender roles, and to what effect? In order to answer the stated questions, this study adopts Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, which pivots around her view of gender as a social construct. The study reveals that the regulative social structure defines certain gender-oriented roles for both sexes and monitors their implementation. It also shows that the contemporary political system, with its regulative and punitive laws and homogenizing strategies, normalizes and bolsters male domination, and propagates stereotypical gender roles. The characters’ resistance, however, usually ends in the consolidation and absorption of a new set of gender clichés, which is mostly westernized; put differently, the rejection of certain gender-based performances generally lead to the performance of another set of gender roles.

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Literary Theory and Criticism
Volume 8, Special Issue
Special Issue
March 2024

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