From Realistic to Modernistic Characterization An Analysis on “Dash Akol”

“Dash Akol” is one of the most important fictions in Persian literature. This short story is different from other fictions of Sadegh Hedayat. Sacrifice and “gheyrat” are important concepts in this fiction and this is questionable. The hypothesis of this article was that, unlike popular belief, “Dash Akol” is not entirely realistic but it`s a semi-Modernist short story because of central subjectivity of Akol. In other words, characterization in the second part of this story is Modernist. A Modern subject has three features and all of them are observable in the main character of “Dash Akol”: 1) Consciousness 2) Agency 3) Personhood. Akol have some secondary features too: 1) Overthinking 2) Attention to the unconsciousness 3) Solitude 4) Thinking about death. This short story is written in a period of contemporary Persian fiction that Modernist literature arose and this story has shown the evolution of contemporary Persian fiction.