The Persian social novel from 1900 to 1941.

This research investigates the novel in the Persian context and in particular the social novel, which is based on social rather than romantic or historical issues and events. The emphasis is on the growth and development of the social novel in the first four decades of the twentieth century. Existing scholarship considers the European novelistic genre as the only model of modern Persian narrative, regardless of indigenous and Islamic, Iranian literary interaction. This study uncovers the influence of the Arabic literary heritage on modern Persian fiction. Therein, I have established for the first time a relation between modern Persian fiction on the one h and , and the Arabic maqama genre and the Spanish picaresque narrative on the other. Chapter I is an historical and literary introduction. Chapters II through V provide a detailed study of four works of fiction of the time. Chapter VI is the conclusion. The historical introduction provides the background of the Constitutional movement (1905-11), World War I and the following period of political turmoil under the influence of, and then the occupation of Iran by, Russia and Britain, followed by the despotic reign of Reza Shah (1925-41). The literary introduction provides and investigates a general survey of Persian literature at its transition from traditionalism to modernity and the reflections in literature of the multiple confrontations between the Iranian heritage and modern Western ideologies. A concern of the literary introduction is the societal attitudes towards political authority and the clergy. The rise of the Persian novel and the circumstances that accompanied it are discussed in detail. Four works of fiction have been selected as representatives of Persian fiction in four decades: Siyahat-name-ye Ebrahim Beg (Ebrahim Beg's Travelogue, vol.I, Cairo, s.d.) by Haji Zayno-l Abedin Maraghe-i; Tehran-e makhuf (Horrible Tehran, Tehran, 1922) by Mortaza Moshfeq Kazemi; Tafrihat-e shab (Nocturnal Amusements, Tehran, 1932) by Mohammad Mas'ud; and Daro-l majanin (Lunatic Asylum, Tehran, 1942) by M. A. Jamalzade. An analysis of both form and content of these novels is presented. The conclusion provides a definition of both the Arabic maqama genre and the Spanish picaresque narrative, and the circumstances under which they emerged in Persian literature. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)PhDMiddle Eastern literatureAsian historyModern languageUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162008/1/8906989.pd