The Influence of Existentialism on the First Modern Persian Novels

Existentialism is one of the most important branches of contemporary philosophy, which, like all schools and terms that emerged in the twentieth century, incorporates a variety of ideas and works. The common denominator of all existentialist thinkers is their opposition to transcendental philosophies. Unlike transcendental philosophers, existentialists consider cognition to be possible after the existence of an object and consider the existence of an object unnecessary. The non-necessity of human existence gives them freedom, but according to existentialists, men are responsible to create meaning for their absurd and meaningless existence with the help of the freedom. They use literature to form their ideas and explain their existentialist beliefs in the fictions. Existentialist fictions are similar in form to other modernist works. Absurdity, commitment, finding meaning of life, dichotomy of good and evil and blurring of boundaries between them, conflict with religions, ideologies and traditional values and the desire for freedom are the most important themes of existentialist literature. This school of thought had a great influence in Iran during Pahlavi regime. In this article, four modernist novels of that period; Bufe Kur, Yakolia and her Loneliness, Malakut, and Shazdeh Ehtejab, are examined from the perspectives of existentialist literature. We examined three existentialist themes: nihilism; dichotomy of good and evil or God and Satan; alienation and self alienation, in chosen novels. By this division, we obtained a line of thought and came to the conclusion that the metaphysical view of the first three novels does not continue in Shazdeh Ehtejab and viewpoint of Golshiri becomes social. Also, the nihilism of previous eras fades, and the characters in Shazdeh Ehtejab try to create meaning for their lives to escape emptiness. Also we found out that the main characters of all four novels are involved in an epistemological crisis. They all try to find an identity for themselves in the conflict with their society: some are resolved in social norms and values, others find their individuality however they are rejected by society.