فصلنامه نقد ادبی (Aug 2022)
Sociological Approach to War Novel (An Image of Minority Discourse): Case Study of Four War Novels
Abstract
The novel has been considered by various researchers as a social work (influenced by and affecting the community). Based on this preliminary assumption, this study engages in a case study of four war novels in order to show the difference between formal narrative of war in different media, including literature, and what is narrated in these works. The research method is based on a combination of theoretical foundations existing in sociology criticism, specifically the Lukach-Goldman model, Leventhal social criticism, and Pierre Bourdieu's viewpoint on institutions of power. The four selected novels include The Scorched Earth, Pilgrimage Customs, Winter 62, and Crystal Garden. These works were all written during the wartime period and are all considered outstanding and popular works. To achieve the research purpose, each novel was interpreted based on the sociological criticism model, and attempting to avoid any bias. The characteristics of each of the four novels were then highlighted in contrast to the formal war narrative, and how features such as personality, narrative style, tone, point of view, and even the content of the work served to reflect the minority discourse. Minority discourse is a multiplied voice that is completely distinct from the formal war narrative, and its manifestation is evident in the war novel as opposed to poetry and other literary forms related to war literature (such as memoir writing and oral narratives). Extended Abstract 1- Introduction The eight-year Iran-Iraq war is undoubtedly one of the salient events in Iran's contemporary history. Even though more than three decades have passed since this event, society is still plagued by the social, political and even economic consequences of the war. Just as this event is important in its own right, so are its "narratives. For a variety of reasons, research on Iran-Iraq War and its surrounding narratives from the perspective of sociology and literature has received little attention (especially not in an unbiased manner without any interpretation and assumptions of the dominant discourse). Thus, the "dominant discourse" with its cultural and propaganda apparatus has exercised a kind of discursive control (under various propagandistic, media, literary, psychological and sociological aspects) over the war in the last three decades, convincing people that the truth of the war is the one proclaimed in this official narrative. 2. Theoretical Framework (social criticism as a method) In general, it should be noted that until the 20th century, critics mainly focused on the content of works rather than their form in the sociological analysis of literature. In other words, their main interest was how social and cultural issues were reflected in literary works and to what extent literary works addressed these issues. This is also the main concern of the critics themselves in the works of the early Marxists. It was not until the 20th century and the publication of the seminal works of critics such as Lukács, Goldman, Bakhtin, Lewenthal, Escarpit, and others that the connection of form, literary type, and esthetic considerations with social structures received special attention. To indicate the views of influential researchers and scholars specializing in the sociological criticism of the novel, we must begin with the Marxists and move on to Lucien Goldman as one of the most notable figures: Lucien Goldman: Developmental Approach in Sociology of Literature The main contribution of Lucien Goldman (1917-1970) to the field of sociology of literature is the introduction of dialectical materialism, that is, a complex method linking art and society to this field. Goldman's innovative technique for exploring literary works is called developmental structuralism. According to this method, a literary work is one of the fundamental elements of social consciousness and does not depend on the consciousness of an individual, but is formed on the levels of supra-individual consciousness (Goldman, 1978: 493-495). 3. Research Background Persian research in this field includes Sociology of Literature (Salim, 1998), Sociology in Persian Literature (Sotoudeh, 1999), Sociology of Persian Literature from the Beginnings to 1978 (Parsansab, 2008); Social Criticism of Persian Novels focusing on 10 selected novels (Asgari, 2008) and Sociology in Persian Literature (Vahida, 2009). These studies chiefly seek to reflect "social issues" in Persian literature, both classical and contemporary. For this reason, they first examine the content of literary works before exploring the association between form, genre, and social relations, they delve into the"content" of literary works. For this reason, the work of Mesbahipour still enjoys an exceptional and distinctive status some four decades later. 4. Research Method To analyze the novels from a sociological criticism approach, this paper adopts a combination of different perspectives presented in the theoretical foundations. The steps taken to obtain a sociological reading of each novel are as follows: First, an interpretive reading is presented that is unaffected by the presuppositions and dominant discourse structures. Next, the relationship between the elements of each story and the dominant discourse (official narrative) and the unofficial narrative is exhibited. 5. Analysis of the plot and interpretive reading of four novels based on social criticism Scorched Land (Mahmoud, 1982). This work is classified under the subgenre of historical novels and depicts events in Ahvaz in the fall of 1980. Winter 1983 (Fasih, 1983). This novel, narrated in the context of romantic events, is an attempt to showcase the realities of Khuzestan and Ahvaz in particular in the midst of the eight-year war. Crystal Garden (Makhmelbaf, 1986). Layah, Mansour's wife, who was martyred during the war, finally gives birth to her third child with the help of neighbors, in the absence of a father to look after her children. The husband of Suri, Layah's neighbor, has also been killed in War. Suri talks about the days of the Islamic Revolution with Layah and how she used to chant slogans and carry the bodies of the martyrs. Rituals of Pilgrimage deals more explicitly than the other three novels with social criticism of the war. Both the course of events and the illustration of the characters reflect the confusion and atonement that different character of the story is dealing with in the wake of the War. In this work, Iraq rather than an invading and hostile country, is depicted as an ancient land where the only combatant in the story (Mehrdad) voluntarily travels as a soldier to discover its ancient secrets. 6. Summary and Conclusion After the 1978 revolution, the new dominant discourse went to great lengths to present a reading of the War bereft of its ugliness (due to censorship) and adverse consequences. A discourse that portrays the death of young people as ideal martyrdom and proclaims that the path to heaven is the main and inevitable path for people from all walks of life. At least four novels were written under such an atmosphere and discourse during the War, which offers a distinct reading and picture of the war while seeking to reflect the voice of others against the propaganda of the dominant discourse, which we have called the minority discourse. The Scorched Land is a narrative of the lost middle class, Winter 1983 is a narrative of the secular but patriotic educated class from the war, Crystal Garden is a female narrative of the underprivileged class that is more or less in tune with the dominant discourse, and Pilgrimage Rituals is the narrative of the archaistic intellectual class from the war, all of which constitute a puzzle that makes up the minority discourse of the war. This is a discourse that survives and thrives against hundreds and thousands of hours of movies and documentaries on the war fronts, and dozens of other novels, short stories, and poetry collections which engages the audience and propagate its voice and perspective. The minority discourse takes a painful glance at the Iranian society during and after the War and seeks to offer a balm to the wounds of this society; a balm that may be attained by sacrifice or calls for a miracle, but is nevertheless absent in the slogans of the official war discourse. The discourse of the minority is the story of the war in the past and in the present, the consequences of its social damage are still evident in the decisions and cultural and social events of Iran.
