Evolution of Self-Awareness in the Works Iranian Women Novelists, based on the Transformation Theory of Ellen Showalter

Abstract

According to the theory of renowned American feminist critic, Ellen Showalter, in the study of any sub-culture, including women’s literary sub-culture, we witness the process of three main stages of imitation, protest, and self-awareness in the works of Iranian women novelists. To describe this process, Showalter developed three stages of transformation as Feminine stage, Feminist stage, and Female stage. As Feminine, the women novelist imitates overwhelming male traditions and patterns. As Feminist, the women novelist protests rooted values and measures in literature. As Female, the women novelist returns to herself to discover personal identity and self-awareness. The present study has extensively reviewed thirty three novels of Iranian women novelist in the last half century from 1960 to 2010. This study, with an eye on Showalter’s feminist theory considers transformation process of self-awareness in female writers of Iran and defines its evolution through the predetermined stages. As the result of present study, it was logically evident to claim that Showalter’s model comprehensively applies to the Iranian female literary subculture. Nevertheless, it must be noted that evolution from second to third stage was not broadly evident and only happened in the work of Shahrnush Parsipur titled “Blue Logos”. We may also need to study more works of Iranian women novelist to search for the third stage enhancements.

Keywords

• theory of ellen showalter
• novel
• iranian women novelists