The Image of Iran in France through Contemporary French Literature

Presentation of a research project as part of the "Jeudis de la Maison Suger", a residents' research seminar.

This session will welcome Bahareh Adhamimoghaddam for a reflection on the representation of Iran in contemporary French literature, through the analysis of works by French authors and Iranian authors exiled in France, published between 2007 and 2019.

The project

"This research focuses on the mechanisms by which representations of Iran are constructed in a Franco-Iranian context, drawing on the tools of imagology, in particular the work of Daniel-Henri Pageaux on the construction of the image of the Other in cultural and literary relations. The study is structured around three complementary axes:

1. A historical and cultural overview of relations between France and Iran;
2. The analysis of the perspectives of Iranian exiled writers (Arefi, Djavadi, Madjidi), who examine their country of origin from a diasporic standpoint;
3. The reading of works by French authors (Énard, Bigio, Minoui), who offer their own vision of Iran through the lens of otherness.

The aim is to identify stereotypes, clichés, or discrepancies between reality and representation, and to highlight the convergences and divergences between French and Iranian perspectives. This work thus emphasises the diversity, complexity, and at times tension in the representations of Iran in contemporary French literature."

Speakers

• Alireza Ghafouri is a research fellow at the European Centre for Sociology and Political Science (CESSP) at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (UMR CNRS).
• Bahareh Adhamimoghaddam is a professor at Azad University of Mashhad, holding a master’s degree in French literature from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and currently pursuing a PhD in French literature at Azad University of Mashhad. She has been teaching French for nine years and is fully committed to student training and knowledge transmission.