A Glimpse of Iran’s Literary Past

A Glimpse of Iran’s Literary Past is a prelude to today’s literature and a criterion for assessing the level of coordination between the culture of the present generation and the necessities of time. At the same time, it can help us evaluate the pace of the passage of time in the process of evolution. This books is an attempt to  explore the factors and instruments that have led to the emergence of the collection of Iranian cultural heritage. This heritage has been dynamic and growing – in the process of its growth and dynamism it has been influenced by intrinsic factors including the sentimental and intellectual “mutations” of the generations as well as extrinsic factors including sociopolitical environment. The history of Persian literature has been inevitably influenced by both internal and external factors in the long process of its transformation. Hence, the succession of dynasties and the encouragement or indifference of rulers over the years cannot be considered as the only instrument of the transformation of literary activities – poetry and prose – and therefore we cannot neglect the internal factors which were formed in our literary traditions in this review. Besides the sociopolitical and economic factors prevailing in each era, the heritage of the traditions of each technique as well as the reflection of the suppressed feelings and aspirations of the past, preserved in the collective unconscious self of the generations over the centuries, have had their impacts on the transformation of prose and poetry – and these suppressed feelings and aspirations in the process of transformation have come to the fore at the time of necessity or at an opportune time either in the form of a return (restoration) or in the form of modernization which have been accommodated by those belonging to that specific period with difficulty. The present book is an attempt to shed light on the said aspects and it is hoped that besides studying the process of the transformation of Persian poetry and prose, it can depict the dynamism and growth of Iranian culture in its past history.