27/06/2026
Register for the ISWÜ Guest Lecture
"Negotiating Female Identity and Feminist Movements in 19th- and 20th-Century Irish and Iranian Society and Literature: A Comparative Perspective" by Dr. Maryam Najafibabanazar
⏰️ 30.06.2026, 4-6 pm (online via Zoom)
Registration and more info:
https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/irish-studies/aktuelles/single/news/guest-lecture-maryam-najafibabanazar/
ℹ️ This lecture examines the construction and transformation of female identity in 19th- and 20thcentury Ireland and Iran through a comparative literary and socio-historical lens. By situating women’s experiences within the broader contexts of colonialism, nationalism, religion, and modernization, the talk explores how feminist consciousness emerges in parallel yet distinct ways across these two cultures. In Ireland, the rise of nationalist movements and the legacy of British colonialism shaped gender roles, often positioning women as symbolic bearers of cultural identity while restricting their social agency. Literary texts—from the late 19th century to modernist works such as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man—reveal tensions between domestic confinement and emerging female autonomy. Similarly, in Iran, the Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911) and later modernization efforts under the Pahlavi era contributed to new discourses on women’s education, visibility, and rights, while also generating ideological tensions between tradition and reform. Drawing on key feminist frameworks and comparative literary analysis, this lecture places Irish and Iranian women writers and representations in dialogue, highlighting how female identity is negotiated at the intersection of patriarchy, nationalism, and modernity. The lecture ultimately argues that despite differing cultural and religious contexts, both societies reveal strikingly similar patterns of resistance, negotiation, and redefinition of womanhood.
