The Image of Arabs in Modern Persian Literature

Abstract

The Image of Arabs in Modern Persian Literature considers the problem of defining Iranianness, given Iran's ethnic diversity and history as an Islamic but non-Arab country. The author focuses on the role of modern Persian literature in the process of self-definition, 19th-and 20th- century Iranian nationalism, and changing models of nationalism and their reflection in the literature, through the close reading and explication of novels, short stories, poems and essays by major Iranian writers of the 20th- century, with emphasis on writings from the Pahlavi period (1921-1979). Works which serve to represent the spectrum of writing and opinion are discussed. Some of the authors that are analyzed include fiction writer and essayist Mohammad Ali Jam_lz_deh, S_deq Hed_yat, Iran's most famous 20th-century author and Jal_l ^D^Al-e ^D^Ahmad, the most prominent literary figure in Iran in the 1960s.