The Republic of Imagination: A Case for Fiction.

Nafisi, Azar; Sis, Peter (illustrator).

ISBN 10: 0099558939 / ISBN 13: 9780099558934

Published by Windmill Books / Penguin Random House, London, 2014

About this Item

Paperback small trade, very good condition, black & white drawings, minor edgewear. 338 pp. Azar Nafisi tells the story about her teaching 'The Great Gatsby' and other classics to her eager students in Iran. This book is the follow-up to her million-copy bestseller 'Reading Lolita in Tehran'. Azar has written an utterly original tribute to the importance of fiction in a democratic society. The book is a blend of memoir and polemic, with a close readings of her favourite novels. Seller Inventory # 30997

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Republic of Imagination: A Case for ...

Publisher: Windmill Books / Penguin Random House, London

Publication Date: 2014

Binding: Soft cover

Edition: 1st ed.

About this title

Synopsis:

From the author of the bestselling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran comes a powerful and passionate case for the vital role of fiction today.

Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her million-copy bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which told the story of how, against the backdrop of morality squads and executions, she taught The Great Gatsby and other classics to her eager students in Iran. In this exhilarating follow-up, Nafisi has written the book her fans have been waiting for: an impassioned, beguiling and utterly original tribute to the vital importance of fiction in a democratic society.

Taking her cue from a challenge thrown to her at a reading, she energetically responds to those who say fiction has nothing to teach us today. Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favourite novels, she invites us to join her as citizens of her 'Republic of Imagination', a country where the villains are conformity, and orthodoxy and the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream.

About the Author:

Azar Nafisi is a visiting professor and the executive director of Cultural Conversations at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She has taught Western literature at the University of Tehran, the Free Islamic University and the University of Allameh Tabatabai in Iran. In 1981 she was expelled from the University of Tehran after refusing to wear the veil. In 1994 she won a teaching fellowship from Oxford University, and in 1997 she and her family left Iran for America. She is the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and Things I’ve Been Silent About, and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New Republic, and has appeared on countless radio and television programs. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two children.

www.azarnafisi.com