The Influence of Social Discourses on the Content and Structure of Persian “Serial Novels,” 1941- 1953

The first years of King Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s rule, a period of social and media freedom, can be considered the start of the spread of “Serial novels” in Iran. As media blossomed in Iran, journals such as Ittila‘at Haftigi, Saba, Taraqqi, Kavyan, and Tehran Musavvar ranked as the top journals publishing this genre. Among the best-selling serial novels, which amassed relative popularity, are Ten Qizilbash by Hussein Sukhanyar Masrur, The Flowers that Grow in Hell by Muhammad Mas‘ud Dihati, The Nights of Babil by Hussein ‘Ali Musta‘an, Larijan: Love and Blood by Javad Fazil, and The Bloody Paw by Ibrahim Zamanis Ashtiyani . For various reasons, including a lack of modern story-writing techniques, these novels were never noticed or analyzed closely by critics. Through discourse and textual analyses, this paper offers a study of these novels to highlight the importance of these works and to illustrate the ignored influence of rival discourses of the same period, such as nationalist, Islamic, Marxist, or a combination of the three, on theme, plot, character development, and narrative style in these novels. The primary analytical tool of this paper is based on the discourse analytical approaches of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Considering the post-structuralist orientation of this approach and the limitations it produces for our analysis, this article employs only the structuralist component of this approach for systematic discourse analysis. The conclusion of this article shows that these types of novels are significant both for cultural studies and discourse analysis as well as in the study of the history of the Persian novel. Moreover, an analysis of the elements of the stories in a discourse analysis context, in comparison with analyses that focus solely on the text, provides more analytical options for the researcher. In this article, in addition to Laclau and Mouffe and the aforementioned journals and novels, historical sources and literary histories, elements of story writing, and a couple of literary histories written in the discourse analysis framework such as The Politics of Writing in Iran are used.
Key words: Serial novels, discourse analysis, content, structure, socio-cultural context.