Representations of Character in Cheshmhayash and Del-e Koor: A Symbolic Interactionist Study

Narratology considers the element of character to be the drive behind roles and actions in a narrative. The sociological theory of “symbolic interactionism” is also concerned with how actions occur. Employing this sociological approach, we can expand the critical method of narratology and introduce new aspects in sociological studies of narrative texts. Using the “self” theory in the sociological approach of “symbolic interactionism”, this article discusses the types of action and the types of character in Bozorg Alavi’s Cheshmhayash (Her Eyes) and Esmael Fasih’s Del-e Koor (The Blind Heart). Therefore, the narrative style of the two authors in the production of character is analyzed and compared. The article considers the narrative character as “self” in the symbolic interactionist theory. The novel Cheshmhayash has two types of active and passive “collective self”. The active “collective self”, in a concerted effort, narrates the story in opposition to the political structure. Thus, the novel’s “self” is marginalized in political relations. It narrates the first and second halves of the Pahlavi period. Characterization in Del-e-koor is determined by a “social me” and form a violent and self-serving “collective self” at the core of the society depicted in the novel. The active characters’ individualistic opposition to this “collective self” leads to their marginalization in the novel’s social life.