The Impact of the Modernity Discourse on Persian Fiction Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Comparative Studies in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Saeed Honarmand, M.A. Graduate Program in Comparative Studies The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Richard Davis, Advisor Margaret Mills Philip Armstrong Copyright by Saeed Honarmand 2011 Abstract Modern Persian literature has created a number of remarkable works that have had great influence on most middle class people in Iran. Further, it has had representation of individuals in a political context. Coming out of a political and discursive break in the late nineteenth century, modern literature began to adopt European genres, styles and techniques. Avoiding the traditional discourses, then, became one of the primary characteristics of modern Persian literature; as such, it became closely tied to political ideologies. Remarking itself by the political agendas, modern literature in Iran hence became less an artistic source of expression and more as an interpretation of political situations. Moreover, engaging with the political discourse caused the literature to disconnect itself from old discourses, namely Islamism and nationalism, and from people with dissimilar beliefs. Disconnectedness was already part of Iranian culture, politics, discourses and, therefore, literature. However, instead of helping society to create a meta-narrative that would embrace all discourses within one national image, modern literature produced more gaps. Historically, there had been three literary movements before the modernization process began in the late nineteenth century. Each of these movements had its own separate discourse and historiography, failing altogether to provide people ii with one single image of a nation. Throughout the centuries, people of this land have called themselves Iranian; however, the image that they conjured from this word has never been the same. The various images have had social aspects as well that all together have created several layers of disconnectedness. Modern literature, as the fourth movement, borrowed its discourse from Europeans. The historiography that it offered was also adopted from the European discourse of modernity. Unable to compromise with others, or to create an Iranian discourse of modernity, the modern movement eventually added yet another layer of disconnectedness. By contradicting other narratives, modern literature reflects a new narrative identity that, by distorting the historical knowledge, tries to refigure the history of Iran through a so called universal history borrowed from Europeans. This narrative in every respect is speculative and without inquiry into the conditions of possibility. What is important here is the paradigm of universal time under the European historiography that refers back to the universe of narrative structure, or rather part of the universe that depicts ‘us’ – Iranians- as a backward country or culture. The modern Persian narrative identity then is confused, because it denies the past and wants to refigure the future based on the European past. Narrative time, under this situation, could not match with historical time and old narrative identities, which were also broken in turn. iii With disconnectedness and the broken narrative identity, modern Persian literature has created novels that have been written in a political framework with particular motifs. Some writers and critics have mentioned these problems; however they have rarely attempted to examine the discourses in which these works are formed. This dissertation attempts to analyze the problematic aspects of the discourse of modern Persian literature, and the disconnectedness that was added to Iranian culture by its influence. iv Dedication Dedicated to my family And to the Memory of Jazbieh Andalibi Abadan v Acknowledgments I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all those who assisted in this undertaking, particularly my advisor professor Dick Davis, who dealt patiently with me. It has been an honor to be his student. I appreciate all his contributions of time, ideas, and funding to make my Ph.D. experience productive and stimulating. I am also grateful for the assistance and support given by Professors Margaret Mills, Sabra Webber, as well as Philip Armstrong, who influenced me in so many positive ways. For all of their professional advice, I am endlessly grateful. I would like to thank my wife, Mehri Farzaneh and children, Poormehr and Azadeh for their support and constant encouragement, especially, Azadeh, my daughter, with her key contributions to this project. Without their support I would not be half the person I am today. I also like to thank Maureen Pritchard, who also helped me with this project, and some of my dearest friends and strongest supporters, Jafar Vali, Mehran Andalibi Abadan, Sohrab and Nasreen Behdad, Afkham Darbandi Davis, Snadhya Kocher and Farshad Zahiri. To all of you, I love you all and I cannot thank you enough. vi Vita 1969…………………………. Elementary School, Sheikh Bahai 1975…………………………. High School Diploma, Neshat 1977…………………………. Teaching Certificate, Daneshsara Tarbiat Dabir 1980…………………………. B.A., University of Isfahan, Iran 2005…………………………. Master, Ohio State University Publications Published Books Gurogli: the Tajiki Epic, translation with Dilshod Rahimov, 2010. 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