A Study of the Subject of Superfluous Man in the Second and Third Decades of 19th Century Russian Literature and Contemporary Iranian Literature

Among Mikhail Lermontov’s works, the novel “A Hero of Our Time” has a special significance. In this article, the theme and structure of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” and the character of its hero were studied and some other issues like the conflict between man and society, human spiritual explorations, typology of “superfluous man”, destiny, tragedy of the burnt generation, etc were analyzed as well. Comparing “A Hero of Our Time” with Pushkin’s “Evgeni Anegin”, we found some similarities and differences in characterization style of the two writers. In the novel of “A Hero of Our Time”, social and psychological issues were studied from philosophical point of view. It also gave an image of a man who was the representative of Russian young generation of third decade of 19th century faced with frustration, remorse and disillusionment after the failure of Decabrists uprising. Although in “Evgeni Anegin” the hero lived before Decabrists uprising and prior to the police government of Nicolay 1st in second decade of 19th century and so he was not as disappointed and extraordinarily secluded as Lermontov’s hero, both of them were typical examples for “superfluous man” in Russian literature. In contemporary literature of Iran, we also came to such enlightened personalities who were in conflict with their own society. Heroes of Akbar Radi’s plays had such characteristics; they were suspicious, revengeful and unstable people. In his book “Gharbzadegi”, Aal-e Ahmad referred to westernization (the tendency toward west) and depersonalization as the source of such view, warning eastern man against feeling subordination to west. In this study, it was tried to investigate common characteristics of such heroes under the title of “superfluous man”.