The Reflection of Folk Narrative of Khorasan Region in Constructing the Female Subject Identity in the Iranian Diasporic Narratives

Folk narratives play an influential role in shaping the identity of the female subject in society, so that the cultural values ​​of the community, largely defined by the prevailing cultural discourse, are reflected through what Foucault calls the "regime of truth". This, in turn, defines the teachings of system of truth for the community through the folk narratives. This paper aims to, first, introduce two folk narratives of the Khorasan region called The Stone Woman and Zohreh: The Dumb Girl in a novel by Yasmin Crowther named The Saffron Kitchen. These two folk tales are written in English for the readers and represent the image of female subject echoed in Iranian folk narratives. This representation also echoes the dominant discourse, and patriarchal cultural hegemony in folk narratives. This investigation, then, examines how the social reflection of the creation of women identity can influence the identity of the female subject. Contemporary female writers have also put emphasize on challenging this hegemony and have constructed a new identity by generating a transnational cultural space. This study explores a novel of the Iranian diasporic literature, in which folk literature is reflected as a prelude to reflecting cultural hegemony, attempting to recall the role of folk literature in reflecting how traditional identity was formed and put forth the cultural "liminal space" for constructing a new female identity. The findings show that the female subject can be independently shaped, regardless of the supremacy of the cultural hegemony, and have a voice to be heard.