The Fluidity of Iranian-Armenian Identity in Zoya Pirzad’s Things Left Unsaid

Abstract

In Things Left Unsaid, Zoya Pirzad creates characters that invalidate the concept of a unified and coherent identity. Pirzad arms these characters with the ability to reshape their selves and emerge as new subjects—all as a result of integration in an Iranian cultural system. Clarice Ayvazian, Pirzad’s Iranian-Armenian female protagonist, demonstrates a full range of diverse characters. Clarice represents an incoherent subject with clashing identities that pull her in different directions. Some of Clarice’s concerns are gender-specific, while others are culture-specific. Since Clarice is both the narrator and the protagonist, and the story is narrated in the first person, there can arguably be an association between the narrator, Clarice, and the author. After all, Pirzad determines Clarice’s behavior, language, and characteristics. It is Pirzad who created a distinct linguistic and syntactic structure for the novel to represent Clarice’s inner predicament with maintaining her Armenian identity and her hesitations about assimilating within the Iranian Muslim community through Parvin Nurollahi’s invitation. Clarice’s struggles are suggestive of Pirzad’s endeavors in reconciling the two sides of her identity and negotiating her Armenian self through writing in Persian.