Social Criticism on Works of Contemporary Women Story Writers

Masoomeh Mahmoodi

doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.4p.50

Abstract

Goldmann's genetic structuralism approach is one of the literary critique approaches and believes that the literary text are derived from the ideology governing the classes of society, and focuses on study of stories and their structures to know the social structures. A review of the changes made in the themes and subjects of the works of the Iranian story writers that most of them are from the middle class of society, indicates the growth of awareness and understanding of Iranian women about their identity and individuality and the achievement of conditions beyond what they are. Although in popular stories, most Iranian female storytellers are still interested in the reproduction of traditional gender stereotypes, but female storywriters in the field of transcendental literature have entered the changes made in their cognitive realm to the actions of characters of their stories. This reveals that they seek to understand their own self and place in the world around them. Love and loneliness resulted by the confrontation between men and women are a common theme in these works that have been narrated on the various issues arising from the family and social relationships of women.

Highlights

The sociology of literature in our time first founded at the beginning of the nineteenth century
Most Iranian female storytellers are still interested in the reproduction of traditional gender stereotypes, but female storywriters in the field of transcendental literature have entered the changes made in their cognitive realm to the actions of characters of their stories
By emphasizing on three concepts of race, environment and time, he introduced the literary works as the result of interactions between biological, cultural, and historical factors. (Alaei, 2001:23) Madame de Stael, in her book named “Literature in its relations with social institution”, explained the interplay of religion, customs and rules on literature. With the beginning of the twentieth century, most of all, the Marxists tried to consolidate the sociology of art and literature. (Fazeli,1996:13) Marx believed that the economy is the substructure of politics, rule, law, art, and literature

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The sociology of literature in our time first founded at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Lucien Goldmann, in order to study the human and social realities, formed the method of genetic structuralism based on the theories of Marx, Hegel, and in particular Lukacs and the epistemology of Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychiatrist He was for some time Piaget’s assistant who considered mental - physical and individual behaviors as the result of human relationships with his environment, and divided the impact of these relationships on two complementary processes - the “adaptation of environment with plans of individual’s thought and act” and “replication of these plans with the structure of environment “. Considering the Marxism theory, Goldmann knows the social classes as the basis of philosophical, literary and artistic currents He believes that the ideology of the social classes forms the structure of the work, and the author belongs to a social class, and whether or not, it reflects the ideology of the same class and a social class creates the artwork, not an individual. The author of the article tries to answer the following questions during this paper: What subjects and themes have been more attentive to women writers in modern times? Are the themes in conformity with the social class of writers and the ideology of their period or not?

THE THEME OF THE WORKS OF WOMEN STORY WRITERS

Findings

CONCLUSION