This happened in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Azar Nafisi was an English Literature Professor at the University of Tehran. One of her teaching materials was The Great Gatsby, a novel by F.Scott Fitzgerald with a central theme on the decay and corruption of the American Dream in the 1920s.
One day, a student confronted her about the book. Mr. Nyazi argued that it was a poison to Iranian students. Nafisi wittingly challenged him by suggesting putting Gatsby on trial. Her suggestion was questioned by another student.
Azar Nafisi was an English Literature Professor at the University of Tehran. One of her teaching materials was The Great Gatsby, a novel by F.Scott Fitzgerald with a central theme on the decay and corruption of the American Dream in the 1920s.
One day, a student confronted her about the book. Mr. Nyazi argued that it was a poison to Iranian students. Nafisi wittingly challenged him by suggesting putting Gatsby on trial. Her suggestion was questioned by another student.
"Did he want me to throw the book aside without so much as a word in its defense? This is a good time for trial, is it not?"
The good time she referred to was the period the Iranian Government had shut down some of the prominent foreign- language bookstores and blocked the distribution of foreign books in Iran.
The battle over the fate of Gatsby in the campus took place in the classroom. The "courtroom" was packed with students playing the roles of judge, prosecutor and defense attorney; Nafisi was the defendant.
The battle over the fate of Gatsby in the campus took place in the classroom. The "courtroom" was packed with students playing the roles of judge, prosecutor and defense attorney; Nafisi was the defendant.
"Islam is the only religion in the world that has assigned a special sacred role to literature in guiding man to a godly life." Mr Nyazi.
"The one thing good about this book is that it exposes the immorality and decadence of American society, but we have fought to rid ourselves of this trash and it is high time that such books be banned." Mr Nyazi
"Our dear prosecutor has committed the fallacy of getting too close to the amusement park. He can no longer distinguish fiction from reality" The defense attorney.
"...He has demonstrated his own weakness: an inability to read a novel on its own terms. All he knows is judgement, crude and simplistic exaltation of right and wrong." The defense attorney
"You don't read Gatsby to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery, infidelity and marriage are. A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil..."
Nafisi, the defendant.
During a recess, Nafisi observed that her students who were silent in the "courtroom" were in fact supportive of Gatsby; some claimed to love it personally.
"Then why didn't they say so? Everyone else was so certain and emphatic in their position, and they couldn't really say why they liked it - they just did." Nafisi
Did Gatsby win the case like all the other famous trials on Madame Bovary, Ulysses, Lady Chatterley's Lover and Lolita?
The trial on Gatsby was not fictional; It truly happened during Nafisi's teaching days at the University of Tehran. She recorded this incident in her 2003 memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran. As the title suggests, this book is not solely on The Great Gatsby; Pride and Prejudice and Lolita are the other two books that she discussed in details. (This book contains spoilers to The Great Gatsby).
Booktique Price: $20
Paperback / 347 pages / additional 30 pages about the author including "A Conversation with Azar Nafisi", "Life at a Glance". " A Writing Life" and "Azar Nafisi's Suggested Reading."
Paperback / 347 pages / additional 30 pages about the author including "A Conversation with Azar Nafisi", "Life at a Glance". " A Writing Life" and "Azar Nafisi's Suggested Reading."
More novels mentioned in Reading Lolita in Tehran
Baghdad Diaries by Nuha al-Radi
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Emma and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Dean's December and More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad
Shamela and Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
The Ambassadors, Daisy Miller and Washington Square by Henry James
In the Penal Colony and The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville
Invitation to a Beheading and Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad
The Language Police by Diane Ravitch
The Net of Dreams by Julie Salamon
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
A Thousand and One Nights by Scheherazade
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Skvorecky
Loitering with Intent and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo
Address Unknown by Katherine Kressman Taylor
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Back When We Were Grownups and St. Maybe by Anne Tyler
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
Baghdad Diaries by Nuha al-Radi
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Emma and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Dean's December and More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad
Shamela and Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
The Ambassadors, Daisy Miller and Washington Square by Henry James
In the Penal Colony and The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville
Invitation to a Beheading and Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad
The Language Police by Diane Ravitch
The Net of Dreams by Julie Salamon
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
A Thousand and One Nights by Scheherazade
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Skvorecky
Loitering with Intent and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo
Address Unknown by Katherine Kressman Taylor
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Back When We Were Grownups and St. Maybe by Anne Tyler
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Great Gatsby first edition, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925 is available for purchase at Peter Harrington, London.