“The Humorous Orientalism of Funny in Farsi and Its UnnoticedOthering of Iranians”

American literary scene has witnessed the flourishing of memoirs written by Iranian women.These memoirs are usually written for Western readers who approach these texts withpreconceptions about post-revolutionary Iran and the way women live in Iran. As thesememoirs are not translated to Farsi, they never find their way into Iranian book markets. Funnyin Farsi, written by Firoozeh Dumas, however, is an exception. It is the only memoir writtenby an Iranian in America which was translated to Farsi. The book was a bestseller in bothAmerica, winning numerous awards. The translation of the book was also a success in Iran asit became a bestseller in Iran in ۲۰۰۵, and sold over ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ copies and to date has beenreprinted ۱۸ times. The present study argues that Funny in Farsi is informed by Orientalistdiscourse and the image of the Easterner as inferior, stagnant, and degenerate. To do so, it takesadvantage of Edward Said’s Orientalist discourse and mentions exoticization, stereotyping andsimplification as its Orientalist techniques. The study concludes that because the author useshumor and because the target of her criticism are sometimes Americans, her Orientalistdiscourse is left unnoticed.

کلیدواژه ها:

exoticization ، Orientalism ، Edward Said ، simplification ، stereotyping