Description
Book SynopsisIn
This Flame Within Manijeh Moradian revises conventional histories of Iranian migration to the United States as a post-1979 phenomenon characterized by the flight of pro-Shah Iranians from the Islamic Republic and recounts the experiences of Iranian foreign students who joined a global movement against US imperialism during the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on archival evidence and in-depth interviews with members of the Iranian Students Association, Moradian traces what she calls “revolutionary affects”—the embodied force of affect generated by experiences of repression and resistance—from encounters with empire and dictatorship in Iran to joint organizing with other student activists in the United States. Moradian theorizes “affects of solidarity” that facilitated Iranian student participation in a wide range of antiracist and anticolonial movements and analyzes gendered manifestations of revolutionary affects within the emergence of Third Worl
Trade Review"This wonderful book examines the history of the left wing of the Iranian diaspora in the U.S., developing a theory of revolutionary affect in the process. Moradian is a wonderful writer and interviewer who combines analytic sophistication with an unusual kind of political and intellectual generosity." -- Lisa Duggan * Commie Pinko Queer newsletter *
"
This Flame Within takes seriously the power, pleasure, and melancholy of social movements. It would work especially well in upper-level undergraduate and graduate seminars. Moradian’s MFA in creative nonfiction and many years of organizing work in progressive feminist of color and anti-war social movements help her construct a beautifully written academic book that is also a generous and tender recording of social history." -- Neda Maghbouleh * Gender and Society *
"A useful contribution to the many legacies of the Iranian revolution, and not just of the secular masculine left. Examining
This Flame Within allows one to ask how revolutionary knowledge is transmitted across generations, how new generational understandings draw on lessons from historical legacies on which they claim to build, and how so-called defeats and victories in the past actually have complicated and multiple legacies for future action." -- Michael M. J. Fischer * Public Books *
Table of ContentsAbbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction. Before We Were “Terrorists” 1
1. Revolutionary Affects and the Archive of Memory 33
2. Revolt in the Metropole 69
3. Making the Most of an American Education 95
4. The Feeling and Practice of Solidarity 128
5. Political Cultures of Revolutionary Belonging 176
6. Intersectional Anti-Imperialism: Alternative Genealogies of Revolution and Diaspora 215
Conclusion. Revolutionary Affects and the Remaking of Diaspora 247
Notes 275
Bibliography 301
Index 323
