Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2018
Publication Title
Journal of Asian American Studies
Abstract
This essay critically analyzes Firoozeh Dumas's humorous memoirs and situates them in the multiple contexts of post-9/11 Muslim American responses to Islamophobia, women's humor, and Iranian American women's life writing. Drawing on philosophical, feminist, ethnic, and contemporary scientific theories of humor and the methods of literary criticism, the author argues that Dumas employs the beneficial and inclusive (not malign and exclusive) positive mode of humorous personal storytelling to build connection through laughter via the emotional and cognitive shifts structurally central to humor. Dumas addresses multiple audiences and engages in important (cross-) cultural work in a particularly fraught political and cultural climate of anti-Muslim sentiment and tense Iran-U.S. relations.
Volume
21
Issue
2
First Page
263
Last Page
300
DOI
10.1353/jaas.2018.0015
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
Licensed to Smith College and distributed CC-BY under the Smith College Faculty Open Access Policy.
Recommended Citation
Hai, Ambreen, "Laughing with an Iranian American Woman: Firoozeh Dumas's Memoirs and the (Cross-) Cultural Work of Humor" (2018). English Language and Literature: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eng_facpubs/7
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.