The Resistance of Literature
Washington, DC
To understand the power of art, of literature, sometimes you have to have it taken away, to have it made forbidden, to lose access to it. Then you can understand its liberating essence, how it frees the mind, how it expresses ideas, how it gives you a voice.
Azar Nafisi has no problem at all understanding that. She has written about keeping art and literature alive in the face of oppression in her books Reading Lolita in Tehran and Things I’ve Been Silent About, which candidly discuss her life in Iran before, during, and after the revolution. As she talks about in this excerpt from this week’s Art Works podcast, literature has always held that place in her heart to face tyranny head on.
Hear Nafisi talk more about literature, the Iranian Revolution, her childhood in Iran, and more in the entire podcast.
