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چکیده
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The present research is an investigation of novels and memoirs written by the writers of the Iranian diaspora community in the United States. On the one hand, this research uses an Orientalist approach to argue that Iran and Iranians have always been viewed from a colonialist perspective which considers their culture, history, traditions, and even the country’s geographical location as inferior. Whereas such a Westernized approach considers Iranian identity as underdeveloped, inflexible, inferior, and profoundly influenced by superstition, it deems the other side of this dichotomy, i.e., Western identity, reliable, powerful, logical, and superior. Accordingly, this research seeks to evince how Iranian-American writers have endeavored to show their western readers the predicament of being Iranian-American through their narratives of disillusionment and alienation. On the other hand, this study also draws attention to the way the selected writers have used humor as a medium through which they can voice their concerns. Using Superiority, Incongruity, and Relief theories of humor to analyze such neglected aspects of these works as humor, politics, as well as the relationship between humor and double consciousness, this study will shed some light on certain aspects of the Iranian-American (Iranican) identity. The works selected for this research include Funny in Farsi and Laughing Without an Accent by Firoozeh Dumas, Sons and Other Flammable Objects by Porochista Khakpour, and The Iranican Dream by Siamack Baniameri. Moreover, this study will analyze the above-mentioned works in order to investigate the use of Iranican humor in the narratives of Iranian-American writers. The rhetoric of these works and the unique type of humor used in them help us understand the alienated identity and the double consciousness of an Iranican. They will also help us realize how humor is used as a rhetorical device to portray the hyphenated identity of these writers and their experiences of always living in between, i.e., as an immigrant caught between nostalgia for the homeland and assimilation in the host country, the United States.
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