ENGL 285 - Reading Lolita in Lexington

FDR: HL Literature Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: completion of FDR:FW requirement. This course uses Azar Nafisi’s memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran, as a lens for studying three novels, The Great Gatsby, Lolita and Pride and Prejudice. We learn how students in the Islamic Republic of Iran have responded to these novels, and how the works’ major themes have played out in Nafisi’s life, and the lives of young Iranian women. Excerpts from Geraldine Brooks’ Nine Parts of Desire help to illuminate the lives of Muslim women, and complement our study of Islam and the history of Iran. Students conduct a journalistic survey of attitudes toward Islam and Iran in the Washington and Lee community, in addition to writing a final paper on the course texts.