Research Paper Volume 8, Issue 3 Summer, 2023 Accepted: April 2023 Published: August 2023 Review Paper Reconstruction of Identity in Modern Iranian Fiction Fatemeh Pourjafari* Department of English Language and Literature, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran. e.pourjafari@gmail.com ABSTRACT Studying modern Iranian fiction demonstrates a gradual shift in gender identity formation. This transition includes the multiple perspectives towards the female by the male characters, dangling between their comprehension of women as either angels or witches. The emergence of womanly-men and manly- women literary characters is a sign of a gradual refusal of the conventional gender roles during the last decades. This study aims at developing a new perspective on reading modern Persian fiction in regard to the issue of gender and identity, based on Judith Butler’s theory of the performativity of identity. The significance of the present research lies in its attempt to change the stereotyped image that the West has of the Iranian Muslim women and their social reality. Keywords: Judith Butler, performativity, modern Persian fiction, identity