A Study of Historical and Cultural Trends Affecting Establishment of First New Literary Forms in Iran (Until Constitutional Revolution)

The conditions of possibility for emergence of novel and play, as two literary forms, is contingent upon the formation of a modern subject. Hence, these two literary forms are unknown to the premodern world. Literary modernity brought about changes in the themes, forms and functions of the Persian Language and Literature, particularly the new literary forms turned into known subjects for the Iranian audience. The present paper is an attempt to discuss the establishment of novel and play among Iranian audience in the process of literary modernity, showing that novel and play have been able to establish themselves only by relying on cultural potentials and historical trends of the tradition of Iranian life. The findings of the paper show that literary modernity was initially accepted as a continuation of the literary change stemming from the experience of Iran-Russia wars. Secondly, five main trends helped the establishment of novel and play forms in Iran: first, considering novel and history synonymous and utilizing the Iranian love of history; second, connecting novel and play with the cultural traditions such as imitation and tazy-e among Iranians; third, changing the novel characters and indigenizing them to totally Iranian ones; fourth, introduction of novel and play as continuation of tradition of upbringing and self-purification in the Persian Literature; and fifth, employing familiar themes and traditional stories in play and novels. Foucauldian genealogical gap analysis was employed. The focus of this paper is analysis of literary texts and historical works during the "literary change" stage from the Iran-Russia wars until the Constitutional Revolution and supremacy of "literary modernity".