Abstract
This chapter discusses the contested canonization of Sadegh Hedayat in Persian literary history and his status in world literature. Early in the twentieth century, there was competition between modern writers, i.e., Hedayat and his peers, and classical poetics which was embodied in the rivalry between emerging writers and mainstream critics. The neglect of the former group led to the delayed national recognition of Hedayat’s work. Ironically, even this happened in the frame of classical poetics and led to the image of a tragi-romantic writer. This chapter argues why Hedayat’s work has been canonized for the wrong reasons, with reference to assumptions about the life of the person, instead of the qualities of the author’s texts. The impact of the reception of Hedayat by French surrealists on his national status and position in world literature has also been problematized.
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Notes
- 1.
The change of the country’s name was meant to emphasize the Aryan roots of the modern nation-state , highlighting historical links with ancient pre-Islamic identity, on the one hand, and with Europe, in particular Germany, on the other.
- 2.
The word meant French at first but came to mean European later.
- 3.
In his Introduction, Lewis provides a comprehensive list of works published on Ferdowsi’s epic narrative. Given that Hedayat is a contemporary writer, and in view of the large number of studies that have investigated his works, his status compares with classical poets. Of course, whether a few centuries from now his work will be read is a different question.
- 4.
Alizadeh illustrates Hedayat’s life and work in black-and-white throughout the book, emphasizing the tragi-romantic author. In the sample provided here, note the use of an owl as well as the way sadness and anxiety have been highlighted in the visage of the figure.
- 5.
The impact of the publisher and the media, as well as cinema, both in terms of adaptations of his works and documentaries about him cannot be neglected in shaping and promoting this image of Hedayat. I have briefly touched upon this in the concluding chapter.
- 6.
The idea of pain and suffering became significant in modern literature through “committed literature” as well: An implicit sign of literary value in this approach is the representation of people’s lives, their suffering, and familiarity with their pains.
- 7.
The most famous members of the group were Sadegh Hedayat, Mas’ud Farzad, Bozorg Alavi, and Mojtaba Minovi. Hedayat co-authored at least a work with each of them.
- 8.
Even though more visible after the 1979 revolution, moral and ideological approaches to literature are not new and had been common when “committed literature” was a guiding principle in literary criticism.
- 9.
Letter to Mahmud Hedayat, dated 10 March 1951.
- 10.
Along with Nima Yushij and Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh.
- 11.
In footnote 2 to this section, she mentions that The Blind Owl “was written in India between 1935 and 1937” which is a factual error. Hedayat lived in India for around eight months and either completed or revised the novel there.
- 12.
Hedayat gave a number of his own books with extensive notes written in their margins to Enjavi-Shirazi during the last days of his life.
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Azadibougar, O. (2020). Contested Canonization. In: World Literature and Hedayat’s Poetics of Modernity. Canon and World Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1691-7_3
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