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2020 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

4. Dreaming from the Margins

verfasst von : Omid Azadibougar

Erschienen in: World Literature and Hedayat’s Poetics of Modernity

Verlag: Springer Singapore

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Abstract

This chapter discusses Hedayat’s short fiction. First, his “nationalist trio” has been reviewed, arguing how Hedayat’s nationalism and relationship with the nation changes even at an early stage of his career. Then, his short story collections are examined. His short stories are groundbreaking in that they legitimize the use of common language for literary communication and develop the short story as a genre in modern Persian. The stories focus on sociocultural issues and as such depart from classical poetics and idealistic or moral narratives. They are shaped by ideas of marginality and some are quite radical in engaging progressive subjects: The tribulations of a closeted gay man, the miniature depiction of the contradictory impact of modernity on Iranian intellectuals, the presentation mad characters, the clashes between scientific rationality and religious spirituality, among others. These themes are delivered through subtle formal innovations which are explained in relation to the poetics of peripheral modernity.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Contested Canonization

Nächstes Kapitel Intellectual Journeys

It is interesting to note that in the short bio-note provided on Hedayat on the publisher’s Web site, the suicide is mentioned; this is not the case with other authors, e.g., Virginia Woolf, who similarly ended their lives.

I have used the version published in 1963 for referencing.

For example, in the first act, Parvin’s father asks: “do you know they sell women?” Then, a footnote is added explaining that “according to historical documents, selling Iranian women by Arabs was common” (Hedayat 1963a, 13). The fictional discourse resorts to historicity to legitimize the narrative perspective though no specific references to “historical documents” are provided.

His name is Chehreh Pardaz (“the illustrator”) and he is painting a portrait of Parvin as his last work.

In act one, scene four, Parvin’s father says: “no, the Iranian race won’t die out” (Hedayat 1963a, 22).

I have used the version published in 2015 for referencing.

The other two stories in the collection are Bozorg Alavi’s “Deev” (Devil) and by Shin Partow’s “Hamleh-ye Eskandar” (Alexander’s Attack). The former is about the Muslim invasion of the Sassanid Empire and the latter is about Alexander the Greek’s attack on ancient Persia.

I have used the version published in 1963 for referencing.

I have used the version published in 1977 for referencing.

Though I have not investigated the link, it may not be a coincidence that this story’s title evokes Tolstoy’s Hadji Murat (1917). After all Hedayat drew an elaborate illustration of Tolstoy.

Hedayat adds a footnote indicating that the archeologist Eugène Flandin and his friend, Xavier Pascal Coste, did important research in Iran “ninety years ago.” He also mentions that the opening description is based on Flandin’s notes.

The only critic that has noted and discussed the irony of the first story is Katouzian (2016, 118–26), who has touched upon the comic aspect of the unreliable narrator.

I have used the version published in 1977 for referencing.

The romantic desire of an older man for a minor in two of these stories is worth exploring. While one should bear in mind the accepted norms of the time, it is important to note that in none of these narratives the boundary is crossed—though for different reasons.

René Girard’s concept of “mimetic desire” (1991) can help explain the triangular relationships and fits in with Hedayat’s poetics of peripherality through the notions of imitation, mimesis, and desire.

In a personal conversation, Jahangir Hedayat argues that Dash-Akol was a real-life character who had lived in Shiraz during the Qajar era; he was apparently a legend whose story had been transferred down the generations orally.

I have used the version published in 1952 for referencing.

In the Persian text, this phrase is provided in German without a translation.

When the husband argues that it is not possible to believe in the afterlife because no one has ever come back from there, he repeats Khayyam’s logic in doubting the religious narrative of the afterlife. Hedayat evokes Khayyam and questions his logic in this story.

In addition, the story begins with a prologue citing Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “You go to women? Don’t forget the whip.” Exploring the story in relationship with the implications of the prologue in its original context would be a fruitful endeavor.

As a side-note on this and many other characters in his collections of short stories, a powerful sense of inertia overcomes characters in nearly all situations. This is an important feature of his work and demands a separate space for exploration.

So she becomes a copy of a copy of an original idea; the concern with authenticity and the replacement of a copy with an original, as well as the relationship between life and art, are central to The Blind Owl, too (Azadibougar 2014, 27–29).

Hedayat explicitly differentiates between the relative mastery of a language and access to knowledge through that same language. In a satiric piece, discussed in Chapter 6, he ridicules translators whose rudimentary linguistic mastery is barren, stops at imitation, and does not lead to knowledge production.

Though this is the most coherent of psychological readings of Hedayat’s works. Persian sources with a similar approach, though not as informed and systematic, are numerous.

This is a historical analysis and helps understanding how the development of modern Iranian history has been entangled in colonial modernity.

I have used the version published in 1977 for referencing.

It does not seem, however, that Descartes was a major influence in Iranian intellectual culture at the time.

Hedayat’s concern with class conflict is reflected in Mr. Haji and “Farda” (Tomorrow). The former is discussed in the following chapter; the latter focuses on the individual impact of political revolutionary ideas, and even though it is an important story both thematically and technically, it has been marginal in the present study.

Published in Paris by Adrien-Maisonneuve in 1946.

I have used the bilingual versions published in 2004 for referencing.

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Titel: Dreaming from the Margins
verfasst von: Omid Azadibougar
Verlag: Springer Singapore
Buch: World Literature and Hedayat’s Poetics of Modernity
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-1690-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-981-15-1691-7

Copyright-Jahr: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1691-7_4

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