A narrative conversation with Azar Nafisi arising from The Republic of Imagination

In this paper I discuss how creative non-fiction arises from a realisation of the power of the story by referring to Azar Nafisi's story about her interactions with America and American literature in The Republic of Imagination. This paper considers her discussions of the cultural importance of the imagination, the utilitarian impulses that act to destroy liberal arts education, the importance of the reader and how creative non-fiction can give rise to a conversation between the writer's points and the reader's understandings. Nafisi's escape from the tyranny of Iran is compared with her American experiences. In her passionate engagement with the importance of a liberal arts education based upon creative artistic narratives, Nafasi positions her beliefs in the importance of the narrative text. She utilises literature, in particular Huckleberry Finn, Babbitt and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, but is aware of the arts generally as the dynamic way to realise our full humanity through our imaginative capacities that reveal both real and imagined meanings. She recounts how this is under threat in America as a kind of capitalist pragmatism leads to bookshops closing, and libraries as well as 'theatres, performing arts centres, art and music schools' disappearing. Theoretical prisms are examined as a way of entering into, analysing and discoursing upon her passionate statements about the central significance of the imagination in bringing a culture to life