Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Novels
Literary fiction is a young but fast-growing art
in Iran, with beginnings in the 19th century
evolving with political upheavals in the 20th
and 21st centuries. While writing styles have
changed, the spectre of censorship has been
ever-present and continues today. As such, few
of the hundreds of published novelists (about half of whom are women) write completely
freely, and fewer are translated into English.
Poets such as Forough Farrokhzad and Sohrab
Sepehri were influential from the 1950s onwards.
Sadeq Hedayat is the best-known Iranian
novelist outside Iran, and one whose influence
has been most pervasive in shaping modern
Persian fiction.
The Blind Owl,
published in
1937, is a dark and powerful portrayal of the
decadence of a society failing to achieve its
own modernity. Hedayat's uncensored works
have been banned in Iran since 2005. Contem-
porary author Shahriar Mandanipour was also
banned from publishing between 1992 and 1997 and, after years of struggle against the
censor's pen, eventually moved to the USA in 2006. In 2009 he published the critically
acclaimed
Censoring an Iranian Love Story,
the story of an author who struggles to write
a love story that will get past the censors.
During a government-orchestrated campaign in the late 1990s, it is widely accepted that
more than 80 writers, poets, translators and political dissidents were murdered. In 1995
Mandanipour, along with 20 other writers, travelled to address poets in Armenia. While en
route by bus through the Zagros Mountains, their driver tried to drive the bus off a 300m-
high cliff, jumping to save himself at the last second. The bus hit a boulder and stopped,
teetering on the edge. The driver fled and the writers were promptly arrested. They were
later released with instructions not to talk about the event.
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
is Marjane
Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel about
growing up through the revolution and the forma-
tion of the Islamic Republic. It's compelling, funny
and, ultimately, heart-rendingly sad. The movie
version,
Persepolis,
was released in 2007.
