Manufacturing Madonnas

Abstract This article argues that Zoya Pirzad’s novel Chiragh-ha ra man khamush mikunam (Things We Left Unsaid, 2001) casts the protagonist, Clarice Ayvazian, as an asexualized Madonna figure. Love in Chiragh-ha is split into its spiritual and sensual dimensions, which are viewed as essentially irreconcilable. Clarice sublimates her desires into more socially acceptable occupations and in doing so represses her sexuality. The novel thus lends itself to a reading through the lens of the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, most notably his work on the Madonna/whore complex.