I contribute to this panel through a study of changing affects and emotions involved in the vast collection of literary works on the red-light district of Tehran, Shahrinaw, (1920-1960), in an era of relatively rapid urbanization, and robust socio-moral reform both of which are contingent to ethos of modernity in Iran. In particular, my focus is on how the narrative styles and rhetoric of report-stories (not simply those of fiction, which have been studied more often) work toward generation of affects of compassion (shafaghat) and kindness (mihrabānī), which in turn foster notions of responsibility and responsible civil action in the form of charity.
I pay special attention to the literature of the genre of report-stories—such as Man ham girya kardam (1922, Jalilī), Rūzigar-i siyāh (1924, Khalilī), Man fāhisha nabūdam (1945, Mirzā-Nādirī), Ghurūbī dar mahalla-yi badnām (1954, Mashāyikhī). Sākin-i mahalla-yi gham (1963), Tūti (1969, Hāshimi), and Chirā bi fāhisha-khāna raftam (1974, Syed)—which became mostly popular from the 20s onwards, and gone prolific in the 50s. Such exposé works are analytically powerful since they embody the moral calling to compassion, which is a pivotal component of reform, the sine qua non of the 20th century Iran politics.
I follow Berlant who argues that representation of suffering plays a role in the production of intimate public social relations and an “intimate public sphere”. In this light, looking into the emergence and mechanisms of this genre of moral literature, I tackle larger questions of the role of literature in defining modern subjects, the role of compassion in modern narrative styles, and ultimately the role of emotions in the construction of the responsible modern citizen in the 20th century Iran.
