Pleasurable Pedagogies: Reading Lolita in Tehran and the Rhetoric of Empathy

This essay examines Azar Nafisi’s bestselling memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), in the context of U.S. book club culture. It argues that the memoir appeals to U.S. audiences by mobilizing a neoliberal rhetoric and a pedagogy of empathy that positions the United States as the geopolitical center of feminist empowerment and human rights.