A Political Analysis of Folktales of Iran Yass Alizadeh University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected]
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University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 12-9-2014 Tales that Tell All: A Political Analysis of Folktales of Iran Yass Alizadeh University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Alizadeh, Yass, "Tales that Tell All: A Political Analysis of Folktales of Iran" (2014). Doctoral Dissertations. 610. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/610 Tales that Tell All: A Political Analysis of Folktales of Iran Yass Alizadeh, PhD University of Connecticut 2014 Abstract This research presents an analytical study of the rewritten folktales of Iran in 20th century, and investigates the ideological omissions and revisions of oral tales as textual productions in modern Iran. Focusing on the problematic role of folktales as tales about the unreal and the fantastic serving a political purpose, this study traces the creative exercises of Iranian storytellers who apply ideological codes and meanings to popular folk language. The works of Mirzadeh Eshqi (1893-1924), Sadegh Hedayat (1903-1951), Samad Behrangi (1939-1968) and Bijan Mofid (1935-1984) are examples of a larger collection of creative writing in Iran that through the agency of folklore shape the political imagination of Iranian readers. While Eshqi’s revolutionary ideas are artistically imbedded in oral culture of the Constitution era, Hedayat’s fiction follows with an intricate fusion of folklore and tradition. Later in the 20th Century, Behrangi introduces politically charged children’s tales to an invested audience, and Mofid dramatizes the joys and sorrow of Iranian culture through a familiar fable. Revisiting the past and reframing the present, these writers invite the readers to participate in a political discourse the consequences of which extend beyond their era to encompass the lives of other generations of Iranians. Tales that Tell All: A Political Analysis of Folktales of Iran Yass Alizadeh B.A., Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, 1992 M.A., Tehran University, 1996 M.A., University of Toronto, 1998 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut 2014 i Copyright by Yass Alizadeh 2014 ii APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Tales that Tell All: A Political Analysis of Folktales of Iran Presented by Yass Alizadeh, B.A., M.A. Major Advisor ___________________________________________________________________ Patrick Colm Hogan Associate Advisor ___________________________________________________________________ Lucy McNeece Associate Advisor ___________________________________________________________________ Fakhreddin Azimi University of Connecticut 2014 iii Acknowledgement My sincerest gratitude to Professor Patrick Hogan for guiding me with patience and encouragement through the winding paths of this research. It was with his earnest supervision and scholarly commitment that I was able to move from page to page and chapter to chapter. My wholehearted thanks to Professor Lucy McNeece. She is the embodiment of the intellectual outlook that Cultural Studies presents, and it was with her example that I dared to take this journey. I am grateful to Professor Manuela Wagner and Professor Jacqueline Loss for their invaluable feedback and input. My sincere appreciation to Professor Rosa Chinchilla for her kind leadership and support. I would not be able to initiate this quest and contest its many challenges without my hero my husband. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents who have patiently waited to see it done, to my husband who has lovingly endured a student-wife for life, and to my two children Yavar and Ava who are my life. iv Table of Contents Introduction: Dressing Folktales in Becoming Outfits 1 Chapter I: Eshqi, Hedayat and the Birth of Modernity 21 • A Theoretical Perspective 21 • A Historical Perspective: Late Qajar and Early Pahlavis 24 • Mirzadeh Eshqi 28 • Eshqi the Ever-Rejectionist of the “Phony Republic!” 34 • Eshqi’s Revolutionary Discourse in Drama 43 • Sadegh Hedayat 53 • Hedayat and Selfless Selfies 53 • “Zendeh Beh Goor” The Generation that Was Buried Alive 57 • “AAb-e Zendegi” and the Politics of Oral Tales 65 • “Abjee Khanoom” and the All-Iranian Bachelorette 72 • Alavieh vs Parvin: Islam vs. Iran 74 Chapter II: Behrangi and Others: Children’s Tales and Political Pop 87 • Some Theoretical Considerations 87 • The Socio-historical Scene of 1960-1978 90 • Pop Culture and Political Hip 91 • Samad Behrangi 111 • Behrangi the Teacher 114 • Children’s Tales in Adult Language 122 • “Oldooz and the Crows” and How to Raise a Militant 126 Chapter III: Mofid and Behrangi Reshaping Motifs to Meet Modernity 149 • A Historical Context 149 • The White Revolution and the Village 154 v • The White Revolution and the City 158 • Talkhoon and the Socialist Quest of the Seventh Daughter 160 • Talkhoon the Sacrificial Heroine 165 • The Iranian Heroine and the Power of Passivity 171 • A Structural Analysis of “Talkhoon” 177 • Bijan Mofid and The City of Tales 181 Conclusion: Post-Revolution and a Feverish Reframing of Tales 200 Bibliography 218 vi Introduction Dressing Folktales in Becoming Outfits ﺑﺎﻻ رﻓﺘﯿﻢ ﻣﺎﺳﺖ ﺑﻮد ﻗﺼﮫ ً ﻣﺎ راﺳﺖ ﺑﻮد Bala rafteem maast bood Ghesseh maa raast bood We went up there was yogurt Our story was the truth This research is an introductory step towards a better understanding of the dynamics of Iranian political literature that continues to safeguard the truth between the lines of reframed popular tales. Rewriting and reframing old tales is hardly a novel endeavor in the history of Iranian storytelling, and despite the emergence of the subject as an independent field of study in 1930s, Iranian folklorists have continuously avoided a political analysis of the country’s popular tales. Fedowsi’s epic Shahnameh, for example, written in 11th century, is arguably a pioneering project in the field of written folktales within the history of Iranian written art, critiquing the poet’s tumultuous times in layers of mythical, historical, and folkloric imagery. The epic, however, has hardly been critiqued as a political discourse where the legendary personae and popular motifs of Iranian cumulative mythology are resurrected and refurbished by the poet on a quest to engage his readers in a discourse on consent. The popular notion that Ferdowsi spent a life time researching, collecting and creating Iranian stories for Mahmood Ghaznavi’s court only to be demeaned by the Sultan’s lack of interest and reward is often where the introductory statements begin and end. The significance of the epic to today’s reader is even 1 more obscure as the introduction to most versions hardly exceeds a couple of cliché paragraphs. Omissions and revisions of this massive text too are barely questioned and usually blamed on the variety in the available yet hard to reach original texts. One example of the widespread censoring of the lines of Shahnameh appears in the discrepancy between the two-volume published in Iran in 2002 by the Ministry of Education and Islamic Culture, and Zabiollah Safa’s version with more lines and different wordings than the endorsed copy1 (Shahnameh 1864, Safa 128). In effect, Shahnameh, the unrivaled miniature depicting the intricacies of the dynamic cultures of the Iranian plateau, continues to be handled with partiality and prejudice. On the one hand, censored as a xenophobic manuscript, and on the other, worshipped as a hyper-nationalist document, the epic is continuously stripped of its historical significance and is treated, instead, as a collection of antiquated yet irrelevant myths. While one group cuts and revises the text in accordance with the state ideology, another severs the text from the context and presents it as an apolitical collection of tragic tales about grandiose heroism and fateful misunderstandings. Unlike Shahnameh, however, Iranian folktales have hardly been critically approached. In fact, the analysis of the country’s vast pool of folktales has seldom surpassed a static reflection on the ancient peoples’ bewilderment over the unbeatable forces of nature. This approach to folklore, a scientific endeavor towards understanding the agrarian behaviors of early Iranians, made a valuable introduction to folklore studies in early 20th century Iran; however, it ceased to keep up with the ever-evolving critical studies of literature and culture. By their scientific methodology of documenting oral tales, idioms and customs, Sadegh Hedayat (1903-1951) pioneered Iranian folkloristics, and followed by Abolghasem Enjavi Shirazi (1921-1993) and, later, Ahmad Shamloo (1925-2000) helped to introduce a methodological approach to cultural norms and tales of Iranian people. Nevertheless, their research did not instigate a continuation or expansion of the or “protect him day and night as long "ﻧﮕﮭﺪار او را ﺑﺮوز و ﺑﮫ ﺷﺐ ﮐﮫ ﺗﺎ ﭼﻮن ﺑﻮد ﮐﺎر ﻣﻦ ﺑﺎ ﻋﺮب“ The omission of the line 1 2 field within the field of Humanities in Iran. As poets, speakers and storytellers, these three can be compared to Persian bards with a significant impact on giving a voice to otherwise dismissed folk narratives. Similarly to bards, their art too was scrutinized by the state. Shalmloo’s Koocheh and Hedayat’s Neirangestan may be their most significant contribution to a historical study of Iranian folklore, but their retelling of Iranian folklore is a critical contribution a political analysis of Iranian culture. Samak Ayyar is considered to be the oldest recorded Persian folktale that was transcribed in the 12th century during the reign of the Saljuqs and at the height of Iran’s cultural development (Mahjoob 593). Nevertheless, it is not clear when story telling shifted from being an act of leisure to a profession. Although little research has been done on oral storytelling as a form of public entertainment before the reign of the Safavids (1501-1736), Jafar Mahjoob contends that oral tellers became popular and well-known during the Safavid dynasty attracting both ordinary people and the nobility to coffee shops that concurrently grew in number and scope (1094-5).