Persian Literature

"Memory" as a Genre The Hidden Issue of Iranian Stories in Their Holy Defense Literature

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

leila karami

University lecturer and researcher, and working at Tehran University. Cultural Department

https://doi.org/10.22059/jpl.2024.367476.2213
Abstract
Memory has an influential background in Iran and the world literary and historical works, as long as it has been mentioned as a literary genre and we can understand its importance as a literary type in our literature of Holy Defense against Iraqi aggressors. Because it consists the hidden issue of many literary types such as novels and short stories, and is the basis of most of masterpieces. Considering simple principles and limited rules, the memoirist warriors of the Holy Defense have perpetuated the bittersweet memories of the war including victories, defeats, and important events and emotions. This permanence happens not only in the form of a written memory, but in many cases, through art and creativity and the author's ability to shape the form of a story; so many memories were transformed into several stories through a deliberate or unconscious process.Using a descriptive-analytical method and through an approach of formative criticism, it has been tried in this study, to explain the importance of how the literary form of memory becomes the hidden text of fiction literature and how the process of this transformation takes place. Surveying three novels and three short story collections of the Holy Defense literature, it has been found that many of such stories are evolved from the memories of the author (the memoirist himself) or of the others'. In other words, the memories have been transformed in a special process and are presented in the form of a new genre (story). Also, in some stories, the memory is hidden in a way that makes it difficult and somehow impossible being recognized by a literary critic. Sometimes, the author is not aware of the presence of a memory, although his/her creativity artistic ability and imaginative mind are also involved to hide the memory in the body of the story. 

Keywords

memory
novel
story
Holy Defense Literature
transformation
literary genre
formative criticism
Subjects
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