The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction

IRAN

A theocratic state and self-described Islamic republic since 1979, in which a single government ministry is responsible for (and presumably seeks to reconcile) culture and Islamic guidance, Iran is not a nation where Westerners would expect much artistic freedom or expression. Yet even though censorship and the withholding of publication permits continue to be pervasive, the Iranian literary scene is well developed and very active, especially compared with that of much of the Middle East and Central Asia. Moreover, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 did not mark an abrupt break and reactionary crackdown, just a shift in what would be tolerated. Despite the radical change in the governing ideology, Iran has had considerable continuity during these decades.

Iran is one of the few nations with which the United States does not have diplomatic relations, creating great obstacles to cultural exchange. With the imposition of international sanctions over concern about Iran’s nuclear program, publishers have faced additional hurdles in bringing Iranian fiction to American audiences. Several small publishers (Mazda, Mage, Ibex) that serve mainly the large Persian community in the United States bring out some fiction in translation, but interested readers would do well to turn first to some of the available anthologies. Stories from Iran (1992), edited by Heshmat Moayyad, is a collection of fiction by all the major writers from 1921 to 1991, and Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature (2005), edited by Nahid Mozaffari, offers a generous selection of postrevolutionary prose and poetry. Both volumes are good overviews, but because they contain only excerpts and short stories, they can only suggest much of Iran’s literary talent.

FEMALE WRITERS ABROAD

A number of predominantly female authors who left Iran in childhood or early adulthood and settled in America have written Iran-themed books, often dealing with the 1979 revolution.

Nahid Rachlin’s (b. 1944) novels, in particular, address the cultural clash and confusion felt by citizens of the two nations. Novels like Foreigner (1978), The Heart’s Desire (1995), and Jumping over Fire (2006) describe Iranians’ experiences in the United States, as well as Americans’ experiences in Iran, with both the upheaval caused by the revolution and the underlying cultural constancy always central.

Dalia Sofer’s (b. 1972) The Septembers of Shiraz (2007) and Gina Nahai’s (b. 1960) Caspian Rain (2007) focus on the Jewish-Iranian experience of the revolution, while Nahai’s Cry of the Peacock (1991) and Anita Amirrezvani’s (b. 1961) The Blood of Flowers (2007) are set further in Iran’s past, as is Israeli author Dorit Rabinyan’s (b. 1972) Persian Brides (1995, English 1998).

Many memoirs have been written by Iranians in exile over the past few decades, with Marjane Satrapi’s (b. 1969) autobiographical French graphic narratives the most successful variation on this form. The simple shaded drawings of Persepolis (2000–2003, English 2003–2004), Embroideries (2003, English 2005), and Chicken with Plums (2004, English 2006) convey life in Iran before and after the revolution better than do most prose accounts.

Under the Shah (1953–1979)

Almost all the classical literature of Iran and Persia is in the form of poetry, from Omar Khayyám’s (1048–1123) Rubáiyát, best known in the translations by Edward Fitzgerald (1809–1883), and the works of Sufi poet Rumi (1207–1273) and Hafez (fourteenth century) to verse epics such as Ferdowsi’s (ca. 940–1020) Shahnameh (English 1925, 2004) and several of the works by Nizami (1141–1209).

Only in the twentieth century did fiction in prose become commonplace. Sadegh Hedayat’s (1903–1951) hallucinatory first-person narrative by a despairing painter, The Blind Owl (1937, English 1957, 1974), is the first great modern work of Iranian fiction. Strongly influenced by avant-garde Western literature, it is nevertheless grounded in Iranian culture (and that of India, where, in fact, the book was first published). In integrating such disparate approaches and influences, the novel opened up new avenues for Persian writing. It remains an authoritative foundational text, as familiar and influential in Iranian writing as, for example, Kafka’s work is internationally.

After Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was deposed in 1953, the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took a heavy-handed approach to cultural expression. Many Iranian authors of the time were politically engaged, which was reflected in their works and made them suspect in the eyes of the authorities.

Jalal Al-e Ahmad’s (1923–1969) best-known work is his seminal 1962 essay variously translated as Weststruckness (1982), Plagued by the West (1982), and Occidentosis (1983). Like most of his work, it was banned under the shah but regained currency in the transitional revolutionary period in the late 1970s, as its anti-Western thesis appealed to many of the factions concerned with what they perceived to be the pernicious foreign (and specifically American) influence of the past decades. Much of Al-e Ahmad’s fiction exposes social conditions, and his novels, such as The School Principal (b. 1958, English 1974), remain of interest for the insight they provide into the still very backward but rapidly modernizing society of the time and the consequences of these many changes. While also depicting Iranian history and conditions, his allegorical By the Pen (1961, English 1988) is a more studiously literary work that is not as obviously a product of that era.

Although female poets had established themselves in Iran by the 1960s, most notably Forugh Farrokhzad (1935–1967), fiction was almost entirely the province of male authors. Simin Daneshvar’s (1921–2012) Savushun (1969, English 1990, and as A Persian Requiem, 1991) was the first novel by an Iranian woman to be published in Iran. Set in Shiraz during World War II, it remains the foremost novel of Iran’s transition to modernity, offering a panoramic view of the country. Since then, women have become major contributors to Iranian literature, but with her Savushun and story collections like Daneshvar’s Playhouse (English 1989) and Sutra (English 1994), Daneshvar has gone significantly beyond merely playing a pioneering role.