The Role of the Dialectical View in the Emergence of New Types of Character in the Persian Novel Case Study: The Nocturnal Harmony of the Wooden Orchestra

Individuality is a general phenomenon surrounded by a whole world of economic, social and other kinds of reality. An individual is, in every way, affected by the world, and affects it, in turn. The interaction is of a dialectical nature. An aspect of the dialectical attitude in the field of art and thought is the dominant role of the economic and social base in the creation of great works of art and literature. The dependence of the great works of art and literature on the economic and social infrastructures is undeniable, though it is highly complex, indirect and mediated, and does not reduce the relative independence of the literary work. According to the dialectical view, each phase of social history is accompanied by a great literary form, and the novel as a literary form in the age of Capitalism is described by the problematic hero. This article does not intend to accept or reject the dialectical view in literature; rather, it seeks to examine the role of this view in the emergence of new types in literature. The existence of the problematic hero in a longitudinal relationship leads to the emergence of a stigmatized type and a type with a sense of inferiority in literature. In other words, the problematic hero is the origin of both types in the contemporary novel.
 
Extended Abstract

Introduction

Human beings, in a kind of dialectical relationship, are affected by and affect the world in different ways. An important aspect of the dialectical perspective in arts and literature is the role of social and economic status in the creation of great works of art and literature. From a dialectical perspective, each stage of the social history has witnessed the development of a literary form. The novel is the literary form of the capitalist era, characterized by the problematic protagonist. The present article examines the role of the dialectical relationship in the development of new genres and types in literature.
 

Theoretical Framework

From a dialectical perspective, social and economic factors have a huge influence on literary production. Dialectics found its way into literature through Marx, and Lukács explained the development of specific literary genres based on social and historical developments. The unity existing in the era of The Iliad and The Odyssey between awareness and the world disappears in the novel, which is the literary form of the capitalist era. According to Lukács, the novel is characterized by a protagonist that is problematic. It is has a dialectical nature and revolves around a useless search because, on the one hand, the protagonist and the worlds are similar in their fruitlessness and, on the other, there is a deep dissociation between them. Goldmann explains the separation between the protagonist and the world from a dialectical perspective. The present article examines the development of specific characters in novels resulting from the presence of the problematic protagonist.
 

Methodology

Using the descriptive-analytical method, the present article seeks to examine the role of the dialectical perspective in the development of genres in contemporary fiction. It tries to study the effect of the problematic protagonist in contemporary Iranian fiction and its role in the development of new genres in fiction.
 

Discussion and Analysis

Many of the protagonists in Iranian novels are problematic characters who found their way into literature simultaneous with the social, political and economic developments in Iran in the early 20th century. Reza Shah’s authoritarian rule caused a big gap between the intellectuals’ mentality and the society. The 1953 coup d'état brought about increased violence for intellectuals and a deeper social and culture gap in Iranian society, as a result of which characters in the novels of this period experienced serious crises and anxiety. The narrator of The Nocturnal Harmony of the Wooden Orchestra (Hamnavayi-e Shabaneh-ye Orkestr-e Choubha) is a problematic character who, because of his resistance to the norms of society, suffers the stigma of being different and is exiled.
 

Conclusion

The novel turned into the dominant literary form at the beginning of the 20th century. The protagonists of this new form were different from those of classical Persian literature as they mainly are obsessed with telling the story of individuals in the background of social changes. Gradually these characters turned into problematic characters, allowing Persian novels to embrace new themes reflecting the social, economic and political changes of society. Since problematic characters are rejected by society, because of the stigma of being different, a new type of stigmatized character is developed, and this, in turn, results in the development of other character types marked by a sense of inferiority. The problematic character of the novel Hamnavayi-e Shabaneh-ye Orkestr-e Choubha has no future and resists the values of his society. He is stigmatized and exiled, and suffers from a sense of inferiority.
 
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