Abstract:
Sadegh Hedayat wrote The Pilgrim (1945) based on and shortly after the historical and political events of the final years of Reza Shah’s government and early years of Mohammad Reza Shah’s rule. The article adopts the method of critical discourse analysis, as formulated by Ruth Wodak, James Paul Gee, and Norman Fairclough, to study the novel and analyze its author’s views on the political discourses of the aforementioned period in order to determine which political discourse or discourses influenced the novel. It is possible to consider the novel politically as a meta-discursive, non-discursive or non-ideological work in which political discourses, such as kingdom, nationalism, fascism, modernism, Westernization, secularism, traditionalism and religiosity, leftism (Marxism and communism), liberalism, democracy, and constitutionalism are criticized by the author. Political ideologies are utilized to secure the interests of their advocates and propagandists. Hedayat experienced many historical and political changes from the Constitutional Revolution to the period of Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Shah and saw the instability politicians, rulers, and profiteers. He mixed up these events with a furious satire and created a political novel. We cannot fully comprehend the novel without having knowledge of the political events and currents of the writer’s period and his political tendencies.
Machine summary:
“Haji Agha” by Sadegh Hedayat, a work beyond political discourses 1 Shirzad Tayefi Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran.
To understand which discourse or discourses influenced the writing of this novel, we have examined it using the method of critical discourse analysis (based on the ideas of Ruth Wodak, James Paul Gee, and Norman Fairclough) and explored the author’s perspective on the political discourses of that era.
This novel can be considered, from a political point of view, a meta-discursive, non-discursive, or non-ideological work in which all political discourses, such as monarchy, nationalism, fascism, modernism, Westernization, secularism, traditionalism, religious fundamentalism, leftism (Marxism and communism), liberalism, democracy, and constitutionalism, etc.
Keywords: Sadegh Hedayat, Haji Agha, Political Discourse, Critical Discourse Analysis, Political Novel.
Haji Agha calls him “Reza Khan” and his government “dictatorship” (Hedayat, 1330: 69) and says: “He received orders from his master” (Ibid: 85); meaning England, which was involved in his coming to power and other affairs of the country.
When various factions and political ideologies emerged in the country and the country When the country fell into instability, the ruling power sought a solution, and Haji Agha and his colleagues were tasked with returning the people to religion and tradition, spreading superstition, creating division, and gaining a majority in parliament (See; Ibid: 71).
Sadegh Hedayat is not an advocate of any specific political discourse in the novel Haji Agha, and his discourse is one of criticism and anger; so much so that he considers all discourses as a means and pretext for gaining power and profit.
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