Sadeq Hedayat The Life and Legend of an Iranian Writer

by Katouzian, Homa

• ISBN13: 9781860644139
• ISBN10: 1860644139
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-02
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Summary

Sadeq Hedayat is the most famous and enigmatic Iranian writer of the 20th century. He was born in 1903 and lived a troubled life which ended in 1951 with his suicide in Paris. His most celebrated novel, The Blind Owl , has made an impact far beyond Iranian literary circles and has drawn the attention of Western critics. But Hedayat's impact on the development of modern fiction and on the lives of generations of Iranian intellectuals derives also from his other works and from his unique approach to life and art in a rapidly changing society. This book is the first comprehensive study of Hedayat's life and works set against the background of literary and political developments in Iran over the first half of the 20th century. Homa Katouzian discusses Hedayat's life and times and the literary and political circles with which he was associated. But he also emphasizes the uniqueness and universality of those ideas that have set Hedayat apart from other Iranian writers of the period and given him a mystique that has been instrumental in his posthumous success.

Author Biography

Homa Katouzian is Associate Member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford and Honorary Research fellow at the Department of Politics, University of Exeter.

Table of Contents

Preface
Hedayat and Modern Persian Literature	p. 1
Early Years	p. 17
Hedayat in Europe	p. 31
Life and Labour in the Golden Era	p. 47
Iranian Culture and Romantic Nationalism	p. 67
Iranian Culture and Critical Realism	p. 91
The Blind Owl: A Critical Exposition	p. 113
The Origins of the Blind Owl	p. 135
Hopes and Despairs	p. 160
Hajis and workers	p. 178
Satire and repression	p. 202
The Trial: The Message of Hedayat	p. 229
The Execution: Hedayat's Suicide	p. 243
The Legend and the Man	p. 257
Index	p. 298
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