An Iranian Childhood
Rethinking History and Memory

A vibrant, unique and personal examination of the overlap between history and memory, focusing on Iranian childhoods.

Hamid Dabashi (Author)

9781316512852, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 April 2023

240 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.46 kg

''It is not the son who kills the father, but the father who kills the son': this memorable takeaway from a thousand-year-old Persian epic echoes through a great scholar's account of his bookish postcolonial childhood. Compulsively readable, a charismatic teacher in love with the freshness of children and their love of stories, Dabashi offers an accelerated course in Great Books and tenderness for the world.' Bruce Robbins, Columbia University

Hamid Dabashi was born and raised in southern Iran in the 1950s and 1960s. During this time, his homeland was changed beyond recognition, from the 1953 coup d'état to the 1963 political protests and the beginning of the Marxist rebellions against the Shah in 1971. In this vibrant, unique and personal study, Dabashi recounts his experience of this defining period in modern Iranian history, deftly blending the personal with the political, the ordinary with the extraordinary. Lyrically written, he combines vivid childhood memories with careful reflection to explore the intersection of history and memory. The book draws upon a rich tapestry of themes and sources, including art, literature, and folklore. In doing so, Dabashi asserts the power and place of the knowing postcolonial subject. Redrawing the limits of modern literary historiography, he asks what it means to be a Muslim and an Iranian, and, indeed, what it is that forms the humanity of a person.

List of figures
Acknowledgements
Prelude: myself as another
1. My memories of our forgetfulness
2. Once upon a moonlight in the merry month of June
3. The house in the Ardeshir street
4. My elephant was dreaming of India
Epilogue: myself as myself
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]