The Image of an Occidental City in the Works of Three IranianWriters

In all cultures, any big place which contains streets, alleys, houses, shops and inhabitants is called a city, whether it is oriental or occidental. But how can we find the spirit of a city among its walls and shops? Isn’t it true that the inhabitants of a city create its civilization, its culture and its liveliness? The city and its residence correlate. That is why we say, “These people are like this” and “Those are like that”. Critics believe that the new inhabitants of every city try to acquire its popular culture and to become one with the rest. Therefore, finding one’s true self and identity would be, in fact, very difficult. Moreover, the modern city destroys part of its inhabitants’ identity, or gives them, at the same time, a new one. This new identity can be found in the audio, visual and verbal images of the city. Paris, the capital of France, is a beautiful occidental city which is depicted in many works of French and non-French writers, poets and film makers. This paper examines the presence of Paris, from the perspective of imagology, in the works of three Iranian novelists, Goli Taraghi, Reza Ghassemi and Reza Gheysariyeh, all of whom resided in Paris, to discover the similarities among these writers’ outlook towards Paris and compare and contrast it with that of the French-speaking writers.