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Women’s Writing in Action: On Female-authored Hajj Narratives in Qajar Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Piotr Bachtin Open the ORCID record for Piotr Bachtin [Opens in a new window]
Piotr Bachtin*
Affiliation:
University of Warsaw
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Abstract

This paper examines the textual and performative functions of early women’s writings on the example of three accounts of the pilgrimage to Mecca written during the Qajar era by Mehrmāh Khānom ʿEsmat al-Saltaneh (1880–81), the anonymous Hājiyeh Khānom ʿAlaviyeh Kermāni (1892–94), and Sakineh Soltān Vaqār al-Dowleh Esfahāni Kuchak (1899–1901). It ponders on the relationships between the female writers and textuality, their readers and, finally, the diary personas they created. It claims that their writings emerged in the process of negotiating the then existing, masculine models of textuality and authorial authority. By rejecting the monologic authoritativeness of literature and textuality, the women diarists transformed their texts into a space for dialogue—including dialogue with themselves.

Keywords

ʿEsmat al-SaltanehHājiyeh Khānom ʿAlaviyeh KermāniVaqār al-DowlehTravel WritingWomen’s WritingQajar WomenFunctions of LiteratureTextuality and Performativity
Type
Narration and Translation
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 1-2 , March 2021 , pp. 67 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2021

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