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The Poetics of Politics: Commitment in Modern Persian Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Hamid Dabashi
Hamid Dabashi*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

Wozu Dichter in Dürftiger Zeit?

—Hölderlin

Triumphant or turbulent, cultures are at once symbolized by and constituted from their arts and sciences. Literature celebrates, as law canonizes, the grand ideals of a living culture. Traditional or transitional, societies and their institutional structures of authority find elaborate expressions in the literature they produce.

This volume of Iranian Studies is devoted to an examination of the modern Iranian writer and contemporary Persian literature in their dialectical, interaction with a transitional Iranian culture and society. Its focus is on a revolutionary literature within a revolutionary social context. The term "revolutionary" is used here in its fundamental cultural sense, embracing both the social and the political.

This paper is devoted to a sociological examination of the problem of "commitment" in modern Persian literature. To reach for the political nature of the problem, it traces the formation of the intelligentsia in modern Iranian society.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 2-4: Sociology of the Iranian Writer , Spring Autumn 1985 , pp. 147 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1985

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References

Notes

1. The tension between traditional and rational/legal modalities of authority, as Weber typified them, is not resolved by violent political events such as repression or revolution. There is as much traditionality in "modernization" programs of the constitutional monarchy as there is modernity in "Islamicization" schemes of the Islamic republic. For a detailed and penetrating study of the past in the present see Shils, Edward, Tradition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 34-62, and 63-161Google Scholar.

2. Arnold Hauser, The Sociology of Art, translated by Kenneth J. Northcott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 89.

3. As to the source of poetic inspiration, it is fascinating that Shamlu always uses "rain" as an analogy for the "coming of a poem." See Shamlu, A., The Introduction, Bargozideh-ye Ash'ar [Anthology] (Tehran: Bamdad, 1969)Google Scholar, p. d. By a permanent law, "rain" comes from above, and there is a clue to the eternal hierarchy of aesthetics.

4. Al-e Ahmad rightly objects to the translation of "intellectual" as rowshanfekr. See Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Dar Khedmat va Khiyanat-e Rowshanfekran [On the Service and Treason of the Intellectuals], 2 vols. (Tehran: Kharazmi, 1978), Vol. I, pp. 17-20. This conceptual mistranslation, however, does not in any significant way alter our typification of the social group as it developed in the post-constitutional period.

5. Ibid., Vol. I.

6. The concept of literati is used here in a specifically modern sense. Weber adopted this category to refer to the educated class in traditional Chinese society. But in this traditional sense, the Chinese literati are the functional equivalent of the Branmanic caste in India and the ulama in Islamic societies. These groups "have been the decisive exponents of the unity of culture." Max Weber, "The Chinese Literati," in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), p. 416. The modern Persian literati neither have nor aspire to have knowledge of the traditional sciences ('Olmn-e Qadimeh or 'Olum-e Shar'iyyeh). Moreover, their revolutionary attitude toward their traditional culture is anything, but conservative.

7. Al-e Ahmad, Intellectuals, Vol. I, pp. 127ff.

8. Aryanpur, Yahya, Az Saba Ta Nima [From Saba to Nima] (Tehran: Sazman-e Ketabha-ye Jibi, 1978), pp. 252-259Google Scholar.

9. Religious authorities were fundamentally opposed to secular education as expounded by Amir Kabir. See Kasravi, Ahmad, Tarikh-e Mashruteh-ye Iran [The History of the Iranian Constitution] (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1974), pp. 18ffGoogle Scholar.

10. See Dahrendorf, Ralf, "The Intellectual and Society: The Social Function of the 'Fool' in the Twentieth Century," On Intellectuals, edited by Rieff, Philip (New York: Doubleday, 1969), pp. 49-52Google Scholar.

11. To be "revolutionary," in a fundamental cultural sense, does not necessarily indicate a radical course of political action. Such liberal thinkers of the constitutional period as Mirza 'Ali Khan Aminoddowleh or even Jalaloddin Mirza were in a cultural sense quite revolutionary in their propagating democratic and emancipatory ideals. They are distinguished from Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani or Shaykh Ahmad Ruhi by the latters' belief in radical course of actions in attaining revolutionary goals.

12. See Kermani, Nazemoleslam, Tarikh-e Bidari-ye Iranian [The History of Iranian Awakening] (Tehran: Bonyad-e Farhang, 1967), pp. 14-15Google Scholar.

13. Ideologically, Jalaloddin Mirza was a staunch nationalist who took upon himself the ardent task of writing a voluminous history of Iran in "pure Persian." See his Nameh-ye Khosrovan (Tehran, n.d.).

14. Abrahamian, Ervand, Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 334Google Scholar.

15. The anti-traditional nature of the intelligentsia was also shrewdly observed by Al-e Ahmad, Intellectuals, Vol. I, pp. 12-13, who noticed that even if all characteristics of a figure of the intelligentsia were gathered in a religious authority he would not be considered an intellectual. This anti-traditional aspect was also manifest in pro-Western tendencies among the intelligentsia, a fact also recognized by Al-e Ahmad in Gharbzadeei [Weststruckness] (Tehran: Ravaq, 1978), pp. 170ff.

16. Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, p. 334.

17. Ibid., pp. 328-329.

18. Brubaker, Rogers, The Limits of Rationality: An Essay on the Social and Moral Thought of Max Weber (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1984), p. 3Google Scholar. For reasons yet to be explored, and probably not unrelated to the glittering appeal of the French Revolution, the Iranian intelligentsia has been more attracted to French ideological tendencies than German theoretical perspectives. The anti-positivist methodologies of Droysen, Dilthey, Simmel, Weber, Windelband, and Rickert have scarcely entered thair intellectual horizon. The English Collingwood and the Italian Croce remained equally unknown to this group.

19. Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, pp. 333-334. Other membecs of the literati associated with the Tudeh Party, according to Abrahamian, include M. E. Beh'azin, Mohammad Afrashteh, and Ahmad Shamlu, "Thus the list of pro-Tudeh writers reads like a who's who of modern Persian Literature." (Ibid., pp. 334-335.) In his three-volume autobiography, Anvar Khameh'i gives extensive accounts of pro-Tudeh sentiments among the literati. Sadeq Hedayat published his short stories in the official Tudeh Party organ, Mardom, and even provided his house as a safe place for secret gatherings of the party members. Other prominent members of the literati, who, according to Khame'i, were associated with the Tudeh Party in one way or another include: Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Ebrahim Golestan, Nader Naderpur, Feraydun Tavallali, Rasul Parvizi, Mehdi Parham, and many others. See Khameh'i, Anvar, Khaterat-e Anvar-e Khameh'i [Memoires of Anvar-e Khameh'i], 3 vols. (Tehran: Hafteh, 1983) 1: 37, 103, and 302; 2: 77-80Google Scholar.

20. Al-e Ahmad, Intellectuals, pp. 17-49.

21. Mahmud, Mahmud, Tarikh-e Ravabet-e Iran va Englis dar Qarn-e Nuzdahom [The History of Perso-English Relations in the Nineteenth Century] (Tehran: Eqbal, 1965), Vol. 1, pp. 36-39Google Scholar.

22. Yahya Aryanpur, From Saba to Nima, Vol. I, p. 260. Despite the indiscriminate translation of popular European novels, and notwithstanding the rather absurd introductions written to such banalities as Madame de Mont Pensier, the prose of these translations was inevitably much simpler and accessible to common readers than standard Persian prose of the time. See From Saba to Nima, p. 260.

23. Donohue, John J. and Esposito, John L., eds., Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 16-17Google Scholar.

24. Abbas Mirza welcomed the opportunity of sending Iranian students abroad and immediately dispatched Mohammad Kazem and Mirza Haji Baba Afshar to England. He sent a second group of students to England after the Darcey mission in Iran. This group included Mirza Reza studying military sciences, Mirza Ja'far Mohandes studying engineering, another Mirza Ja'far studying chemistry and medicine, Mirza Saleh Shirazi studying the English language and literature, and Mohammad Ali Chakhmaq Saz studying the locksmith trade. For a short account of these events see Yahya Aryanpur, From Saba to Nima, Vol. I, pp. 223-226; or Cottam, Richard W., Nationalism in Iran (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964), pp. 158-180Google Scholar. See also Shirazi, Mirza Saleh, SafarNameh [Travelogue], ed. by Esma'il Ra'in (Tehran: Rowzan, 1968), pp. 12 and 207Google Scholar.

25. For a detailed history of these early commercial developments see Mahmud, Perso-English Relations, Vol. I, pp. 54 and 292-297.

26. Ibid. For the vicissitudes of Russo-Persian commercial activities see Entner, M., Russo-Persian Commerical Relations: 1828-1914 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1965)Google Scholar.

27. For a study of economic developments during the Qajar period see Ashraf, Ahmad, Mavane'-e Tarikhi-ye Roshd-e Sarmayehdari dar Iran: Dowreh-ye Qajar [Historical Obstacles to the Development of Capitalism in Iran: The Qajar Period] (Tehran: Zamineh, 1980)Google Scholar.

28. Amir Kabir sent John Davud Armani to Austria where he hired seven instructors to come and teach at Dar al-Fonun in 1851. Later, British pressure forced the Iranian officials to hire a few Italian teachers as well. Aryanpur, From Saba to Nima, pp. 252-259.

29. For a short account of the emergence of journalism in Iran see ibid., pp. 234-252.

30. Ibid., pp. 260-261.

31. Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, Haftad-o Do Mellat [Seventy Two Nations] (Berlin: Iranshahr, 1924).

32. Aryanpur, From Saba to Nima, pp. 228-238.

33. For a detailed account of Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani's life and thoughts see Feraydun Adatmiyat, Andisheha-ye Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani [Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani's Thoughts] (Tehran: Tahuri, 1967).

34. For an assessment of the interaction between religious and political authorities in this period see Bamid Algar, Religion and State in Iran: 1785-1906 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969). For a more comprehensive study of the Shi'ite interaction with political authority see Said Arjomand's, Amir The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35. Abbas Mirza and Jalaloddin Mirza represent the court, while Sayyed Mohammad Tabataba'i Behbahani, Haj Mirza Javad of Tabriz, Aqa Najafi of Esfahan, and Mirza Mohammad Hasan Ashtiyani of Tehran represent the mosque. See Kasravi, History of the Iranian Constitution, pp. 16-53.

36. The theory of culture underlying this argument is adapted from the continuing work of Philip Rieff. See his Fellow Teachers: Of Culture and Its Second Death (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1972), pp. 25, 35, 49, 73, et seo.

37. What is now dubbed "Islamic Ideology" is a paradoxical negation of Truth [haqq]--a double irony. Islam is a revealed faith. It makes a claim to a permanently valid Truth. Ideology, from Marx to Mannheim, is socioeconomic reality temporarily canonized, always subject to nullification by the upcoming revolution. "Islamic Ideology" manages to serve its political aim, and delegitimate Islam's universal claim to Truth simultaneously.

38. Abulqasim Lahuti, Divan (Tehran: Nushin, n.d.), p. h.

39. Ibid., p. 118.

40. Khosrow Golesorkhi, "Modern Persian Poetry's Incarnation," Critical Perspectives on Modern Persian Literature, compiled by Thomas M. Ricks (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1984), p. 244.

41. Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, Nameh-ye Bastan [The Book of the Ancients], quoted in Yahya Aryanpur, From Saba to Nima, Vol. I, p. 393.

42. Ibid.

43. Shamlu, "She'ri keh Zendegi-st" [Poetry Which Is Life], Selected Poetry, p. 56.

44. Mansour Shaki, "An Introduction to Modern Persian Literature," Critical Perspectives on Modern Persian Literature, p. 41.

45. Samad Behrangi, "Poetry and Society," ibid., p. 241.

46. Hushang Ebtehaj, "Sarab" [Illusion], Darya-yg Gowhar [The Sea of Jewels], compiled by Mehdi Hamidi (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1955), p. 465.

47. Rahi Mo'ayyeri, "Raz-e Shab" [The Mystery of Night], ibid., p. 383.

48. Vesal Nurani, "Havas" [Desire], ibid., p. 457.

49. Yushij, Nima, "Moonlight," An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry, translated by Karimi-Hakkak, Ahmad (Boulder: Westview Press, 1978), p. 31Google Scholar.

50. Shamlu, "Ayda in the Mirror," An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry, p. 62.

51. Shamlu, "The Song of Abraham in Fire," ibid., p. 67.

52. Examples are Nima Yushij's "Qognus" [Phoenix], Akhavan-e Sales' "Khan-e Hashtom" [The Eighth Exploit], and Shamlu's "Lowh" [Tablet].

53. See A. Shamlu's "Shabaneh" [Nocturne], No. six, Ayda, Derakht, Khanjar va Khaterh [Ayda, Tree, Dagger, and Memory] (Tehran: Morvarid, 1965), p. 43.

54. Nima Yushij, "Moonlight," Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry, p. 31.

55. Arendt, Hannah, "Tradition and the Modern Age," Writers and Politics: A Partisan Review Reader, ed. by Kurzweil, Edith and Phillips, William (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), p. 27Google Scholar.

56. See Yushij, Nima, Harfha-ye Hamsayeh [The Neighbor's Words] (Tehran: Donya, 1972)Google Scholar.

57. See Weber's "Politics as a Vocation," pp. 120ff.

58. Shamlu, "Allegory," An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry, p. 54.

59. Albert Camus, "Art and Revolt," Writers and Politics, p. 56

60. Leon Trotsky, "Art and Politics," Writers and Politics, p. 56.

61. Madox Ford, Ford, The English Novel: From the Earliest Days to the Death of Joseph Conrad (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1983), pp. 3-4Google Scholar.