Writing Modernity: Gender, Space and Literary Interventions in Iran (FEMGEN 214M)

This course looks at how gender, space, and ideas of modernity came together in Iran at the turn of the twentieth century. We focus on memoirs, poems, plays, and newspapers written by Iranian women. Rather than treating these works only as historical or literary documents, we read them as creative and spatial interventions that helped shape modern Iranian culture. Through close reading and interdisciplinary analysis, students will explore how women questioned the architectural and social boundaries that confined them and redefined private and public space. The course places these writings in conversation with broader ideas from literary criticism and spatial theory. Alongside textual sources, we engage with visual and material culture including painting, photography, and architecture, to trace how women's visibility and mobility were represented and regulated. By integrating textual and spatial approaches, the course asks how women's cultural production participated in Iranian modernity itself. Readings are available in Persian and English; no prior knowledge of Persian is required.