Laughter, a passport to escape exile: The story of an ironic exile

Abstract

The particularity of the Iranian community that was formed in France in the 1980s, emanates from its essential composition of artists, writers and intellectuals who became political refugees. As the experience of diaspora affects these authors intimately, it incites them to fundamentally explore the theme of exile. After three decades of diaspora the situation is changing since some authors have been able to open “doors” on the closed world of their home countries by means of literary works translated into or written directly in French. These books address issues related to current Western societies (intercultural exchanges, globalization and Islam) and this is perhaps one of the reasons why this new literature arouses the interest of a European audience who wishes to better understand coexisting cultures.