Iran's Mahmoud Dowlatabadi: breaking taboos Opiiniion - IInternatiionall Monday, 25th November 2013 Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, recently announced as the winner of the 2013 Jan Michalski Prize, answers questions from Tasja Dorkofikis for PEN Atlas, charting the works, influences and world-view of Iran's most important living writer. Those iin power iin IIran consiider your work to be subversiive,, though you yoursellf say that your books are not delliiberatelly polliitiicall.. What do you thiink are the rolles of a wriiter and of lliiterature? Especiialllly iin a country where there are lliimiits on free expressiion? I have never been a political activist, but I have pondered political issues as a citizen, and political thoughts have always been reflected in my work. Nevertheless, what has been and will be of fundamental importance to me is to create literature. A writer can have whatever role he likes. The important thing is to not let the lack of freedom of speech conquer your inner freedom, especially because man lives mostly in his mind and a man who is also a writer lives even more exclusively in his mind. Your earlly wriitiing focuses on periiods of sociiall and cullturall transformatiion iin IIran.. Kelliidar and Miissiing Solluch chroniiclle a hiistoriicall periiod when peoplle miigrated from the country to ciitiies.. Have you allways been iinterested iin thiis shiift iin sociiety? Social and historical changes are the most important events in the life of a writer. The period and works that you refer to had to be written from the perspective of an ever-changing history. One of the aspects of my work as a writer was to pay attention to history, both to classic Persian literature and the modern literature of the last century. The same goes for what I have learned from world literature. Your writing breaks many taboos and approaches subjects previously left unsaid. Your presentatiion of the IIran–IIraq war iis brutall and unspariing,, and lliife for your characters iin generall iis viiollent and fullll of anguiish.. Do you thiink that the current realliity remaiins equalllly diiffiicullt? Are peoplle lless alliienated from each other now? Breaking taboos has to do with maintaining that inner freedom that I spoke about earlier. The violence and anxiety is the particularity of the period in which I have lived. Living in a country and a society that was attacked by its neighbor, Iraq, both during, before and after the war was not easy at all, and I was affected by all the violence and hurt and pain. It is evident that there have been changes in Iranian society, which have www.bookbrunch.co.uk Design by: BDS Digital © BookBrunch Ltd. made it different from the decade of revolution, war and atrocities. However, in my experience, reality has never been easy. The type of estrangement between people has changed too, which now manifests itself mostly in the gap between poverty and wealth. Both Miissiing Solluch and Kelliidar feature very strong and compllex femalle characters.. How do you see femalle rolles iin IIran nowadays? And how diid you choose the maiin femalle character iin Miissiing Solluch? Women in Iranian society today are going through a constant struggle to break the tough husk of the past. The female protagonists of Missing Soluch and Kelidar come at the closing points of a three-four thousand year period, and they represent a moment of change in the social history of our country. And this fact always reminds me of Thomas Mann who said that the writing of important works comes at the end of a certain historical period. Hence, for instance, Kelidar and Missing Soluch were created during a certain historical context when nomadic life had shifted to a sedentary one and the relationship between landowners and the peasantry had disintegrated, resulting in the cities being filled with those same peasantry leaving their villages behind. It has to be said that during the literary creation of my work, I was not bound by any of these rules. I have, since then, thought about them and now I am answering your questions. In any case, I have to say that women have always been clearly lauded in Persian legends and epics and during the ceremony for the Jan Michalski Prize I read a poem in praise of woman, earth, water and fertility that you heard. The Collonell iis set towards the end of the IIran-IIraq war (1980-1988) and depiicts the iimpact of events from the Shah beiing deposed to the IIsllamiic Revollutiion and the war on IIran''s ciitiizens.. The Collonell''s famiilly iis deeplly diiviided allong variious polliitiicall lliines and the overallll iimage of sociiety iis very blleak.. You saiid duriing the PEN Worlld Voiices Festiivall:: ''[The] IIran II wriite about iis iin conflliict wiith iitsellf..'' What diid you mean by thiis statement? If you read The Colonel once more you will understand even more deeply the painful explanation of this conflict. The Colonel is about a pressed and pressured Iran. The Iran of The Colonel (1983-1985) is very different from the Iran of today. Unfortunately there is no more colonel, or his children. But our society is full of beautiful young people today among whom I imagine there are more than a few of the descendants of the colonel. The maiin character,, an aged solldiier,, iis both progressiive and tradiitiionall.. He kiilllls hiis wiife for humiilliiatiing hiim,, yet he iis a sympathetiic character.. Why diid you deciide to present hiim iin thiis way? The wife of the colonel - a general who refuses to take part in the repressive war and is first imprisoned and then removed from the military of the second Shah Pahlavi - is used against him. The military and aristocratic salons use his wife to humiliate this patriotic general and bring him to his knees; a man/colonel who undoubtedly has a traditional past in the most hidden angles of his mind. Your prose has a very diistiinctiive stylle,, iit iis both poetiic and raw at the same tiime.. Coulld you descriibe your stylliistiic iinflluences? Are they maiinlly IIraniian,, or from ellsewhere? Without doubt, Persian poetry is part of my formation and mould. Can one recognise a writer who has been tied to the classic and modern literature of his country without Persian poetry? I cannot speak about my writing style but through the words of Leo Tolstoy: behind every literary work, its writer stands. When you fiirst moved to Tehran from the countrysiide you diid variious jjobs,, and among other thiings,, you worked as an actor.. Have theatre and fiillm iinflluenced your wriitiing? Theatre is how I came to know about the literature of serious classical drama. Before that I only read books and I loved reading, but in my theatre course I came to learn more about the differences between the two. Hence I have undoubtedly been influenced by theatre. The same goes for cinema, as long as there were serious films and serious artists who made those films. But since the period of those filmmakers is over, I have not gone to the cinema. www.bookbrunch.co.uk Design by: BDS Digital © BookBrunch Ltd. The Collonell has never been publliished iin IIran.. IIt coulld have been publliished by the underground press and you deciided agaiinst iit.. Can you tellll us why you took thiis deciisiion,, and how lliikelly iis iits publliicatiion now? I cannot say for sure if it will be published or not. But I do not agree with the underground publication of the book. I detest any secret and hidden work and I believe in the same clarity and transparency to which you referred to in my work. And this is my essence: should a work that has been written in the language of Roudaki, Sa'di, Rumi and Dehkhoda be published or not? You saiid duriing the PEN Worlld Voiices Festiivall:: ''As a wriiter II embarked on a path of creatiing epiic narratiives of my country,, whiich necessariilly contaiin a llot of hiistory whiich has not been wriitten.. But iin doiing that II have been requiired to have a llot of patiience,, perseverance and very few expectatiions from lliife..'' You cllearlly had to accept a llot for your wriitiing.. IIf you llook back,, woulld you have done anythiing diifferentlly? It is of course not possible to go back to the past. But were it possible, I would be the same, with perhaps more effort to learn. Mahmoud Dowlatabadi was born in 1940 in Dowlatabad, north-west Iran and is a writer and actor, known primarily for his realist stories focusing on rural life. His first story, The Pit of Night, was published in 1962 in the Anahita Literary Magazine. Other major works include his 1968 novel, The Tale of Baba Sobhan (filmed as Khak), and Kalidar, a novel about a persecuted family and a classic of Persian literature. His most recent novel The Colonel (published in the UK by Haus and in the US) was shortlisted for the Haus der Kulturen Berlin International Literary Award in 2009. Tasja Dorkofikis is the editor of the PEN Atlas as well as a freelance editor and publicist. Translator Sahar Delijani was born in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran in 1983. Her debut novel is Children of the Jacaranda Tree (Weidenfeld), which will be published in more than 70 countries and translated into 25 languages. The Colonel is translated by Tom Patterdale. See PEN Atllas Source article: https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article- detail/irans-mahmoud-dowlatabadi-breaking-taboos www.bookbrunch.co.uk Design by: BDS Digital © BookBrunch Ltd..