Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T16:59:48.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Narrative Geometry in ʿAli Reza Gholami’s Divar (The Wall): New Developments in Iranian War Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2022

Goulia Ghardashkhani Open the ORCID record for Goulia Ghardashkhani [Opens in a new window]
Goulia Ghardashkhani*
Affiliation:
University of Bamberg, Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Holy Defense Literature is the official term applied to a large body of prose and poetry published during and after the Iran–Iraq war (1980–88) as part of the Islamic Republic’s cultural policy to promote and maintain its Shiite and anti-imperialistic political and ideological agenda. Both the production and the critical reception of this body of work have since been gradually altered, resulting in a discrepancy between two mutually exclusive tendencies in the literary representation and interpretation of the Iran–Iraq war: the ideological and the realistic, the latter introducing a narrative alternative to the former. ʿAli Reza Gholami’s novel Divar (The Wall) (2015), however, can be read as an exception to this current creative and critical polarity. By openly renouncing any claim to any kind of truth, Gholami has rendered his highly technical literary creation into a narrative text that goes beyond the real to exert its undermining effect on the ideology of the Holy Defense. Drawing upon Andrew Gibson and Michel Serres, this article attempts to refashion the narrative geometry of Gholami’s novel to underline and elaborate on its destabilizing extra-textual meaning as well as its dialogical and dynamic literary effect.

Keywords

ʿAli Reza GholamiDivar (The Wall) NovelLiterature of the Iran–Iraq WarHoly Defense LiteratureSacred DefenseNarrative Geometry
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 5-6 , December 2020 , pp. 873 - 892
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Butel, Eric, “Le martyr dans les mémoires de guerre iraniens: Guerre Iran–Irak (1980–1988).” PhD diss., INALCO Paris, 2000.Google Scholar
Chelkowski, Peter, and Dabashi, Hamid. Staging a Revolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic of Iran. New York: New York University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Dehqan, Ahmad, Safar beh gara-ye 270 darajeh. Tehran: Sarir, 1996.Google Scholar
Dehqan, Ahmad, Journey to Heading 270 Degrees. Trans. and ed. Sprachman, Paul. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2006.Google Scholar
Etteḥād, Hušang, “Ḥālat, Abu’l-Qasem.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica, December 15, 2003. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/halat-abul-qasem/Google Scholar
Fasih, Esmaʿil, Zemestan-e 62 [Winter of [19]83]. Tehran: Nashr-e Now, 1987.Google Scholar
Ghanoonparvar, Mohammad Reza, “War Veterans Turned Writers of War Narratives.” In Moments of Silence: Authenticity in the Cultural Expressions of the Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988, ed. Khakpour, Arta, Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi, and Vatanabadi, Shouleh, 88–102. New York: New York University Press, 2016.10.2307/j.ctt1bj4sc8.8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gholami, ʿAli Reza, “Beh jang va tahdid ʿadat kardehʾim: goftogu ba ʿAli Reza Gholami beh bahaneh-ye roman-e ‘Divar’.” Shahrvand, May 13, 2015. http://shahrvand-newspaper.ir/News:NoMobile/Main/31348/Google Scholar
Gholami, ʿAli Reza, Divar [The wall]. Tehran: Morvarid, 2015.Google Scholar
Gholami, ʿAli Reza, “Masʾaleh-ye jang dar Iran hanuz ham yek masʾaleh-ye ruzmarreh ast: kash kheyli az vaqeʿiyat-ha-ye jang bedun-e taghyir chap mishodand.” Iran’s Book News Agency (IBNA), April 6, 2015. http://www.ibna.ir/fa/doc/longint/218577/Google Scholar
Gholami, ʿAli Reza, “Vared-e adabiyat-e bimar va mohtazar-e irani shodam.” Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), January 26, 2015. https://www.isna.ir/print/93110603029Google Scholar
Gibson, Andrew, Towards a Postmodern Theory of Narrative. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Karimi-Hakkak, Ahmad, “Introduction: Iran’s Literature 1977–1997.” Iranian Studies 30, no. 3–4 (1997): 193–213. doi: 10.1080/00210869708701866CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keymanesh, ʿAbbas, “Abolqasem Halat.” In Khalvat-e ons: sharh-e ahval va asar va mokatebat-e adabi-ye tani chand az shoʿara-ye moʿaser, 109–119. Tehran: Ettelaʿat, 2009.Google Scholar
Khakpour, Arta, Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi, and Vatanabadi, Shouleh, eds. Moments of Silence: Authenticity in the Cultural Expressions of the Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988. New York: New York University Press, 2016.10.2307/j.ctt1bj4sc8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi, “Narratives of Silence: Persian Fiction of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War.” In Moments of Silence: Authenticity in the Cultural Expressions of the Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988, ed. Khakpour, Arta, Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi, and Vatanabadi, Shouleh, 217–235. New York: New York University Press, 2016.10.2307/j.ctt1bj4sc8.16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khosronejad, Pedram, “Introduction.” In Iranian Sacred Defence Cinema: Religion, Martyrdom and National Identity, ed. Khosronejad, Pedram, 1–58. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 2012.Google Scholar
Khosronejad, Pedram, ed. Iranian Sacred Defence Cinema: Religion, Martyrdom and National Identity. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 2012.Google Scholar
Mahmud, Ahmad, Zamin-e sukhteh [The burnt land]. Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1982.Google Scholar
Makhmalbaf, Mohsen, Bagh-e Bolur [Crystal garden]. Tehran: Barg, 1986.Google Scholar
Marʿashi, Nasim, Haras [Pruning]. Tehran: Nashr-e Cheshmeh, 2017.Google Scholar
Mirʿabedini, Hasan, Sad sal dastannevisi-ye Iran. 4th reprint. Tehran: Nashr-e Cheshmeh, 2007.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Jolyon, Promoting Peace, Inciting Violence: The Role of Religion and Media. New York: Routledge, 2012.Google Scholar
Moosavi, Amir, “Dark Corners and the Limits of Ahmad Dehqan’s War Front Fiction.” Middle East Critiques 26, no. 1 (2016): 45–59. doi: 10.1080/19436149.2016.1245531CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moosavi, Amir, (2015) “How to Write Death: Resignifying Martyrdom in Two Novels of the Iran–Iraq War.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 35 (2015): 1–23.Google Scholar
Mortezaʾiyan Abkenar, Hoseyn, ʿAqrab ru-ye pelleh-ha-ye rah-ahan-e Andimeshk ya Az in qatar khun michekeh qorban! [Scorpion on the stairs of the train station or Sir, blood is dripping out of this train!]. Tehran: Nashr-e Ney, 2006.Google Scholar
Nezhad Sedaqat, Hura, “‘Yeki bud va yeki nabud-e’ Nevisandegan.” Jam-e jam anlayn, May 12, 2015. http://jamejamonline.ir/online/1938711921118661871/Google Scholar
Qolipur, Mahmud, “Yek roman-e butiqayi: darbareh-ye ‘Divar’ neveshteh-ye ʿAli Reza Gholami.” Farhikhtegan, May 26, 2015, p. 8. http://www.pishkhan.com/Archive/1394/03/13940305/Farheekhtegan709710110411448515350152.pdfGoogle Scholar
Rafiʿi, Sima, “Dastan-e jang 25 saleh mishavad: negahi beh asari az adabizat-e dastani-e jang.” BBC Persian, September 22, 2005. https://www.bbc.com/persian/arts/story/2005/09/050913_pm-war-literature.shtml#4Google Scholar
Rahmani, Ashraf, The Legal System Concerning Book Publishing in Iran: A Descriptive and Analytical Study. Hamilton: Golden Maple Publications, 2017.Google Scholar
Serres, Michel, L’interférence. Vol. 2 of Hermès. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1972.Google Scholar
Serres, Michel, Les origins de la géométrie. Paris: Flammarion, 1993.Google Scholar
Shams, Fatemeh, “Literature, Art, and Ideology under the Islamic Republic: An Extended History of the Center for Islamic Art and Thoughts.” In Persian Language, Literature and Culture: New Leaves, Fresh Looks, ed. Talattof, Kamran, 163–192. New York: Routledge, 2015.Google Scholar