A Comparative Study of the Image of War in The Blood of Others and Savushun

Simone de Beauvoir and Simin Daneshvar are pioneers of women's writing and activists of women's rights in France and Iran. In their writings, both authors are engaged in offering an account of the status of women and the role they play in their societies. In their writings, they called for full-fledged gender equality in their societies. They are, therefore, in the public spotlight. Additionally, they are considered committed authors among their contemporaries due to their political and social works. The similarities between two authors’ writings, along with the influences they might have exerted on each other, may offer fertile grounds for comparative research. It is not surprising that the authors have produced similar and relevant writings in a related area and this similarity is probably caused by similar intersubjectivity and socio-historical conditions the authors had. Drawing on imagology—as a branch of comparative literature— the present research is a comparative study of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Blood of Others and Simin Daneshvar’s Savushun as far as the image of World War II is concerned. This comparative analysis suggests that the two authors yielded a different and similar image of the war. Notwithstanding the cultural and geographical distances between the two, the projected image concerns a common goal which is describing the war from political, social and cultural perspectives. The two authors have perfectly drawn the image of war for readers using such images as the fight and social conditions. They condemned the war by projecting negative images of it.