Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl

The Arab invasion of Sassanid’s territory in 637 A.D. was the cause for many conspicuous changes in the social and political aspects of Persians’ life. One of the most distinct changes was the gradual degeneration of Persians’ assumed cultural and religious legacy that considered Zoroastrianism as t...

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Main Authors: Pedram Lalbakhsh, Pouria Torkamaneh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2014
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7063/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7063/1/3771-14270-1-PB.pdf
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author Pedram Lalbakhsh,
Pouria Torkamaneh,
author_facet Pedram Lalbakhsh,
Pouria Torkamaneh,
author_sort Pedram Lalbakhsh,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The Arab invasion of Sassanid’s territory in 637 A.D. was the cause for many conspicuous changes in the social and political aspects of Persians’ life. One of the most distinct changes was the gradual degeneration of Persians’ assumed cultural and religious legacy that considered Zoroastrianism as the true religion and the Aryan race as a pure and superior one. However, centuries of struggle and skirmishes in part of those interested in the revival of their assumed ancient past did not lead to the restoration of the type of social esteem and stability they favoured for their country. In his modernist novel, The Blind Owl, Sadeq Hedayat sounds like the spokesperson of this faction, voicing their lamentation upon the identity loss and the degeneration of the glorious past they nostalgically advocated and dreamed. Accordingly, building upon Dennis Walder’s theory of Postcolonial Nostalgias, the authors argue that Hedayat’s novella offers a couple of tales as platforms to nostalgically lament the aforementioned undesirable changes that these individuals had to encounter and endure. As such, the first tale presents the bitter reality of a world where nostalgia is prevailing and affecting the invaded nation, while the second tale pictures the degenerated splendour and the tarnished image of the past immediately after the arrival of the invaders.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:70632016-12-14T06:43:00Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7063/ Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl Pedram Lalbakhsh, Pouria Torkamaneh, The Arab invasion of Sassanid’s territory in 637 A.D. was the cause for many conspicuous changes in the social and political aspects of Persians’ life. One of the most distinct changes was the gradual degeneration of Persians’ assumed cultural and religious legacy that considered Zoroastrianism as the true religion and the Aryan race as a pure and superior one. However, centuries of struggle and skirmishes in part of those interested in the revival of their assumed ancient past did not lead to the restoration of the type of social esteem and stability they favoured for their country. In his modernist novel, The Blind Owl, Sadeq Hedayat sounds like the spokesperson of this faction, voicing their lamentation upon the identity loss and the degeneration of the glorious past they nostalgically advocated and dreamed. Accordingly, building upon Dennis Walder’s theory of Postcolonial Nostalgias, the authors argue that Hedayat’s novella offers a couple of tales as platforms to nostalgically lament the aforementioned undesirable changes that these individuals had to encounter and endure. As such, the first tale presents the bitter reality of a world where nostalgia is prevailing and affecting the invaded nation, while the second tale pictures the degenerated splendour and the tarnished image of the past immediately after the arrival of the invaders. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2014 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7063/1/3771-14270-1-PB.pdf Pedram Lalbakhsh, and Pouria Torkamaneh, (2014) Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 20 (1). pp. 21-32. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/index
spellingShingle Pedram Lalbakhsh,
Pouria Torkamaneh,
Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl
title Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl
title_full Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl
title_fullStr Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl
title_full_unstemmed Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl
title_short Nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in Hedayat’s The Blind Owl
title_sort nostalgia and degeneration of splendour in hedayat’s the blind owl
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7063/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7063/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7063/1/3771-14270-1-PB.pdf