'Oil Fiction' in Iranian Literary Modernity

The established criticism of ‘Modern Persian Literature’ often rigidly and inconsistently classifies modern Persian fiction through labels such as ‘historical,’‘social,’‘committed’ and ‘provincial’. This classification, however, ignores the heterogeneity of sources that have contributed to the emergence and development of Iranian literary modernity. This heterogeneity derives from the temporal-spatial nature of these sources and their intra- and extra-literary conditions.
My paper contributes to this new approach by critically revisiting the regional or provincial classification of Iranian literature known as the 'Southern School.' According to the classic definition, the ‘Southern School’ is preoccupied with the extreme heat and humid climate of the south and the harsh social conditions of its inhabitants, particularly underprivileged workers. The latter is the focus of the ‘committed’ literary works associated with authors influenced by communist politics. This classification, however, lumps together areas in the south that have not produced the same literature, and also excludes regions that have similar literary traditions.
By introducing the term ‘oil-fiction,’ used first by Amitav Ghosh in his review of Cities of Salt by Abdulrahman Munif, this paper aims to provide a more precise and nuanced understanding of one of the sources of Iranian literary modernity. In this paper, I will examine a number of fictional works in which the impact of oil is quite visible.
Instead of regional boundaries, the focus on the direct and indirect role of oil allows us to understand the emergence of a genre that deals with modernity and its contradictions, urbanization and migration, the impact of the policies of the oil company, the experience living in a multicultural and semi-colonial society and company towns, colonial and transnational encounters, the role of technology, class politics and resistance.
While fictional, oil-fiction forms the counterpole of the dominant narrative about oil, which is often an institutional narrative of economic, technical, and political aspects focused on states and big corporations.This genre is inspired by real historical events and conditions, specially the role of Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in the region, and represents the hybridity of the oil-company towns.