Int.J.Eng.Lang.Lit & Trans.Studies Vol.2.Issue. 3.2015 (July-Sep)
506
FATEMEH MOZAFFARI
ABSTRACT
Edward Said, an outstanding figure in post-colonial area points out that the West
and the East are always in a kind of battle. European powers regard themselves as
a model having knowledge and strength to manage and run the Eastern societies,
the others. Europeans see the others as people or community that they can shape
and impose their own language, values and culture on. As an Iranian author and
translator, Simin Daneshvar illustrated vividly the impact of British colonialism on
the tribal life in Shiraz during the Second World War. Moreover she depicted
Iranian women and their lives in the patriarchal Iran, in her novel Suvashun. Lack
of freedom of speech and inferiority of the colonized and cultural blend under the
domain of colonizer power are issues discussed in Suvashun by Simin Daneshvar.
Postcolonial study of this book represents communities and the people affected
by the imposition of different cultures, religions and belief which were imposed on
them by the dominating powers.
Key words: Post Colonialism, Patriarchy, Exploitation
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INTRODUCTION
Post colonial study defines a cultural relation between the colonizer and the colonized. It’s better to
say that it is a battle between the colonizer and the colonized in order to impose or to inject the newly arrived
culture in which the colonizer is almost the winner of this battle and is more likely to become the dominator.
Throughout the history, we have seen the West as the colonizer and many African or Asian countries as the
colonized. Theories and approaches concentrate on the writings of colonized cultures in different parts of the
world. As Bressler says that postcolonial “theories investigate what happens when two cultures clash and
when one of them, with its accessory ideology, empowers and deems itself superior to the other” ( Bressler,
236).
In a colony, when the colonizer culture dominates the native culture, the colonized people feel the
lack of culture, and consequently after a while they will face lack of identity. The colonizer culture prevail the
native culture, they see native people as subhuman or savages and this leads to their inferiority, so they must
be excluded from position of power. This is possible only through destroying the identity of the colonized
people. Those without identity are most likely to become what the colonizer desires.
Daneshvar published Suvashun, the first novel from a woman's perspective written by an Iranian
woman in 1969. Her masterpiece novel Suvashun is considered the climax of Persian novel writing, narrating
the sufferings of Iranian people during World War II. It shows how Iran was exploited during the period. It talks
Vol.2. Issue 3., 2015 (July-Sept.)
POST COLONIAL IRAN: A STUDY OF SIMIN DANESHVAR’S SUVASHUN
FATEMEH MOZAFFARI
Assistant Professor, Department of General Courses, University of Shahrood, Iran
Email: mozafari.f@shahroodut.ac.ir
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, LITERATURE
AND TRANSLATION STUDIES (IJELR)
A QUARTERLY, INDEXED, REFEREED AND PEER REVIEWED OPEN ACCESS
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
http://www.ijelr.in
RESEARCH ARTICLE
FATEMEH MOZAFFARI