Abstract
Laughing with an Iranian American Woman: Firoozeh Dumas's Memoirs and the (Cross-) Cultural Work of Humor
Highlights
Dumas’ memoirs offer the dual perspective of a girl growing up in two very different cultures, a product of both, understanding, negotiating, and mediating between both
This essay closely examines Firoozeh Dumas’ distinctive use of humorous autobiographical storytelling to explore how this Iranian American Muslim woman writer makes important cultural interventions in the context of fraught relations between Iran and the U.S in the aftermath of 9/11.3 Critical humor theory is the central lens through which I read Dumas’ writing, which I locate in relation to the genres of post-9/11 Muslim comedy and Iranian American women’s autobiographical writing
Drawing on theories of humor from contemporary psychology, cognitive science, philosophy, and feminism, I argue that Dumas deploys a complex form of benign inclusive humor, or humorous personal storytelling, to laugh with, not at people,4 to laugh about an issue raised, and to instruct by building connection through laughter, not to malign, depreciate or ridicule
Summary
Dumas’ memoirs offer the dual perspective of a girl growing up in two very different cultures, a product of both, understanding, negotiating, and mediating between both.
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