A New Genre, a New Reader;

Situation of War Resistance Literature and Its Readers

in IranMohammad R. Javadi YeganehAssociate Professor of Sociology

University of Tehran

School of European Languages and Literatures,

University of Auckland

14 September 2011

Problem of literature in Iran

Increasing rate of published book, and increasing in literature book,

Increasing rate of love story Decreasing rate of non-popular books.

Situation of Reading Novels in Iran In literary novels over tenth printing, %90

of them were popular novels In 449 best-selling printings, 118 (%26.3)

were high novels, The top best-selling novel, which was also

popular, had 38 printings, while the second ranking was 22 for another two popular novel; however, the highest printing for a high novel was just 16.

General Causes of Popularity in Popular Novels

the end of the 8-year war the large size and rapid growth of the young age

groups a quick increase in the number of educated,

unemployed women an overall development in convenience and well-

being during the last decade of Iran the spread of TV and low-quality soap operas

Causes of Popularity in Popular Novels;policy making

I. Ang states that the domestic popular literature is attacked from three angles:

Intellectual literature Formal literature of the government

Western popular literature The effects of the conflict between the

intellectual literature and the formal literature on the growing popular literature

Existing Challenges in the Iranian Contemporary Literature

Two Major Fractions Governing Cultural Policies in Iran Conservatives Reformists

The gap between the two parties goes back to their level of tolerance against the ‘opposition’ group.

The opposition party is said to be composed of those Iranian literati and artists who resist against the Islamic Republic’s criteria: Islam

Changing in Opposition High Literature Approach

Private tutoring classes for story writing Numerous sites and weblogs Using international opportunity

Growth Popular Novels in Bipolarized Space Iranian literary space has been devoid of the

opposition high literary novels, and also formal successful literary works are neglected from the opposition.

Conflicts between intellectual and formal literature nourish the popular literary novels.

Negative outlook on the popular literary novels has brought negligence to them and lack of cultural policies.

Situation of High Literature The Weakness of high literary Works:

in this novels in Iran, ideas and style of writing is more or less the repetition of prevailing literature of the world.

the organizers of non-governmental prizes mainly complain about that.

The literature of leisure

Elite Writers have been written to fill the leisure time;

They do not study the serious and important events of the life and deal only with the regular details of normative life of modern societies;

The writer of these works deals with writhing within the format of prevailing styles and avoids new experiences.

War Resistance Literature, a New Genre

Lost land of Iran. 1813-1971

New Trends in Iranian Literature War resistance memory Outside the formal narrative of war resistance

Kusk Soft Soils. 329000 copies

Da (grandma) 500.000 copies

New Generations of Readers

The readers of these books usually have no relation with serious and elite novels

The new trend has created a new genre Readers are placed in the middle point of

popular and serious novels

New Horizons for Iranian Literature war resistance literature has a potential to be

worldly presented This experience which has been tied with the

Shiite mysticism and Iranian spirit can present a new experience to the world literature about the human nature and the broadness of his soul.