The Formation of Realism in Iran

Realistic writing has not been as much the focus of attention as non-realistic modes in Persian literature. The socio-political literature of the Constitutional Period led the mindset of people in big cities، particularly the capital city، away from supernatural concerns to earthly and humanistic life. Upon the appearance of newspapers، Persian prose moved towards simplicity and reality. Journalism intensified the development of realistic writing; moreover، the attention given by Iranian journalists to critical social realities led them to the composition of social stories in the form of feuilleton. Thus realistic novel entered literary arena simultaneous with the development of the modern state bourgeoisie. This paper illustrates the backgrounds to the formation of Persian realistic novel from the perspective of literary history since Constitutional Period and pursues the Persian language trend of movement towards realism and the birth of realistic fiction out of journalism. The most significant issues discussed here include: transition from historical novel to social novel، linguistic transformations and social reality، journalism and realism، pioneers of Persian realism، recurrent themes of realistic works، the shortcomings of early realistic novel and its sociological values.