Hegelian Interpretation of the First Literary Manifests about Story and Novel in Iran (1871-1921)

Since the first comments of ‘Akhoond Zadeh’ up to the introduction of ‘Yeki Bood Yeki Nabood’ (once upon a time) by ‘Jamal Zadeh’, in a period of almost fifty years, we encounter with a few scattered speeches about story and novel, which has hardly gained any attention by the researches so far. These scattered notes could be considered as the first literary manifests about story and novel. In these critiques and comments some topics could be considered as the common ideas of writers and critics of that era. Moralism, realism and the profitability of novel are the three common topics of all these few speeches. Historical conditions and social changes of the constitutional era, prepared a space which only the purposeful literature could have flourished in. The first novels and novel critiques in Iran were formed in these situations and the purposefulness of story and novel was prioritized inevitably. Therefore, this article tries to interpret and analyze the first critiques and comments about story and novel in Iran based on Hegel’s aesthetics. Hegel and Hegelians considered the literary content more important than the literary form and emphasized the purposefulness and profitability of the novel. In this research, it is shown that the first critiques in Iran have much in common with Hegelian aesthetics.