The challenges of transcribing historical experience: a comparative study of the novels The Paper Tiger by Olivier Rolin and Alley of Lost Clouds by Kourosh Asâdi

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of French Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/jor.2024.375752.2523

Abstract

The May 68 movement in France and the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 were both influenced, in various ways, by the global Revolutionary, liberating and anti-imperialist ideals during the second half of the twentieth century. While Michel Foucault and Reza Baraheni have briefly pointed out the similarities and differences between these two significant political and social events due to their importance, a literary comparison of the novels written about these events has yet to be conducted. This research is a study on how the history of these two Revolutionary movements is rewritten in the book Paper Tiger by Olivier Rolin, a former left-wing activist, and the novel Alley of Lost Clouds by Kourosh Asadi, an Iranian writer from a generation that experienced the Revolution. French researcher Emmanuel Bouju examines the relationship between history and literary narrative to elucidate the issue of historical rewriting. Within Bouju's framework, the archaeological exploration of memory and the reproduction of the voices of witnesses can be cited as two examples of patterns of historical rewriting in literature. This article aims to analyze these patterns through the lens of narrative theory to reveal the differences and similarities in this rewriting. Furthermore, the role and responsibility of the reader in decoding and understanding is the final stage of the evolution of the rewriting process that will be addressed.

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References

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Research in Contemporary World Literature
Volume 29, Issue 2
November 2024
Pages 581-603

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