An Inquiry into the Possibility of an Existentialist Interpretation of the Novels Jazireh-ye Sargardani and Sarban-e Sargardan
Subject Areas : Research in Contemporary Iranian Literature
1 - M.A. in Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
Keywords: Jazireh-ye Sargardani, Sarban-e Sargardan, existentialism, Simin Daneshvar, anxiety, novel.,
Abstract :
An Inquiry into the Possibility of an Existentialist Interpretation of the Novels Jazireh-ye
Sargardani and Sarban-e Sargardan
Mahya Sadat Asghari *
Simin Daneshvar’s two novels, Jazireh-ye Sargardani and Sarban-e Sargardan, have so far attracted the attention of literary critics from various perspectives. However, these two novels have not been analyzed from the perspective of existentialist criticism. Attention to the individual and existential concerns of human life, as well as the primacy of life and its meaning over ideological and idealistic social objectives; emphasis on freedom, agency, and responsible decision-making as opposed to being immersed in the everyday flow and common conventions of society; are elements that bring a literary work close to existentialist philosophical works. In the history of modern literature, the works of writers such as Dostoevsky, Camus, and Sartre fall within this category. Here, Daneshvar’s two aforementioned works are analyzed from this perspective. The existential concerns of the main character of these two novels, namely Hasti, in contrast to the idealistic issues and social and ideological concerns of the characters around her, have an existential resonance. Hasti’s anguish and wandering in Daneshvar’s novels are of the kind of anguish and anxiety that existentialist thinkers regard as inevitable consequences of the particular mode of human existence. Here, an existentialist interpretation of these two novels is defended both by emphasizing the character of Hasti and her concerns and by taking into consideration the historical-social context in which the story is narrated.
Keywords: Jazireh-ye Sargardani, Sarban-e Sargardan, existentialism, Simin Daneshvar, anxiety, novel.
- Introduction
Simin Daneshvar is a prominent figure in contemporary Iranian fiction. Her literary works have a profound connection with the social, political, and cultural transformations of contemporary Iran, and she has consequently acquired a unique position in the contemporary Iranian novel. The two novels Jazireh-ye Sargardani (1372 [1993]) and Sarban-e Sargardan (1380 [2001]), whose narratives are interconnected, are among her most important works. In these two novels, Daneshvar, alongside the course of the narrative, depicts the political, social, and intellectual climate of Iran during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. Compared with a work such as Savushun, these two works have a more modern and, in some respects, more complex structure and contain themes such as the crisis of meaning, identity, wandering, and so on, all of which evoke the text’s engagement with anthropological themes in contemporary philosophy. The story of the main character of the two novels wandering among conflicting traditional, modern, and ideological intellectual-social currents is, in a sense, a reflection of the crisis of the Iranian intelligentsia in a society in transition.
In this article, terms that are central to existentialist literature in the Persian language, including “wandering” and “anxiety,” are considered and analyzed in relation to the content of the two novels Jazireh-ye Sargardani and Sarban-e Sargardan, and on this basis these two works are read as existentialist literary works.
Such a reading is based on an encounter with the text of these two works and therefore the article certainly does not claim that the author of the two aforementioned novels was familiar with, for example, Heidegger’s ideas and was fully conversant with the thought of existentialist thinkers. What is stated in this article is the result of a direct encounter with these two novels and an examination and analysis of these works, independent of an investigation into the author’s circumstances and beliefs.
- Discussion
In response to an interpretation of the Persian novel whose story is dependent on the historical-social conditions of Iran, based on a Western theory or philosophy, it may be objected that this theory is dependent on the socio-historical conditions of the West and that interpreting such a novel on the basis of that philosophy results from overlooking the differences between these two contexts and their historical-social conditions. This objection is not without merit and is valid and worthy of consideration with regard to the interpretation of some Persian literary works on the basis of Western theories or philosophies.
For the reasons mentioned here, it seems that such an objection does not apply to an existentialist interpretation of the contemporary Persian novel. First, although existentialist philosophical discussions emerged under particular historical-social conditions, especially with the peak of these discussions after the World War and the crisis of meaning resulting from the devastation and crimes of war and, consequently, the crisis of meaning, the profound and fundamental issues raised by existentialist philosophers issues such as freedom, choice, responsibility, anxiety, the meaning of life, solitude, and the Other are issues concerning human existence and are not limited to particular socio-historical conditions.
This characteristic of existentialism makes it possible to study even the condition of historical human beings including certain prophets, writers, or artists from an existentialist perspective. Likewise, the existentialist engagement of thinkers such as Gabriel Marcel with medieval religious texts, the existential interpretation of works of art such as Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, and so forth, all attest to the claim that, from the perspective of the philosophers who have developed this tradition, existentialism is a theory concerning the existential condition of human beings and that its concerns are not exclusively limited to the socio-historical context of contemporary Western humanity.
Although there is in itself no problem with interpreting the contemporary Persian novel from an existentialist perspective, it is nevertheless better, in presenting such an interpretation, to take into consideration the socio-historical conditions and context of the novel’s story, as well as the social conditions out of which the author created the novel, and, by taking these socio-historical conditions into account, to provide evidence in support of an existentialist interpretation of the work.
Therefore, in the existentialist interpretation of the novels Jazireh-ye Sargardani and Sarban-e Sargardan, we take into consideration the condition of the character named Hasti in these two novels and the particular historical-social context of contemporary Iran. It seems that both intratextual evidence (concerning the historical context of the story) and extratextual evidence (concerning the historical-social context in which the author is situated and out of which she creates the work) support the adoption of an existentialist perspective in interpreting these two novels. Extratextual evidence includes the author’s own life, her social engagement in the historical circumstances before and after the 1979 Revolution, and her familiarity with Western philosophical thought. Intratextual evidence includes the following: the references in these two novels to important political events of the periods before and after the Revolution; the presence of characters who played roles or participated in these events; Hasti’s position between competing ideological ideas and metanarratives supported by the secondary characters; and so on.
The historical context of the story of the novels Jazireh-ye Sargardani (1372 [1993]) and Sarban-e Sargardan (1380 [2001]) is Iran in the 1350s [1970s]. Iranian society in the 1340s and 1350s [1960s and 1970s] was a society in transition from tradition to modernity and therefore experienced the crises associated with this transition. The disillusionment of intellectuals, migration, war, the idea of struggle, and the subsequent failure of collective ideological ideals are characteristics that share numerous similarities with the Western society that provided the context for the emergence of existentialist philosophies.
Among the characteristics of existentialist thought is the priority and centrality of individual and personal life in thinking. Our personal experiences of life should guide our reflections. Life should always be the starting point within the context of which all other ideas, values, or ideals are discussed. In directing an individual’s life, the existentialist thinker gives priority to the individual’s own personal life over any doctrine or metanarrative. Essentially, one of the functions of metanarratives is to prevent the individual from having an authentic encounter with life and its problems.
Kierkegaard’s question is not what is truth? Rather, his question is, “What is truth for me?” In opposition to the traditional conception of truth, which consists of objective and universal essences, Kierkegaard puts forward truth as subjectivity. For Kierkegaard, the learning of truth is, first and foremost, self-education. Therefore, from Kierkegaard’s existentialist perspective, the answers to the fundamental problems of human beings should be sought not in grand worldviews and great ideologies, but within oneself and in the context of life.
In the two novels Jazireh-ye Sargardani and Sarban-e Sargardan, we encounter both the existential crisis of meaning and the discovery of the meaning of life through engagement with art. Hasti, the main character of the story, is an artist; she is a poet and painter. She knows well the epistemological and ideological systems that claim to give meaning to life, but these systems do not possess their claimed validity for Hasti, just as they do not for Roquentin in Sartre’s novel. She is therefore afflicted with wandering and is in search of an essence that gives meaning to human life.
She realizes that this wandering and this search for the meaning-giving essence must be pursued through her own creativity, that is, through artistic creation. She herself must create this meaning-giving essence: “[Hasti says,] ‘I discovered myself and became whole. I must devote myself to poetry and painting.’”
- Conclusion
Considering the features and elements contained in Simin Daneshvar’s two fictional works, namely the novels Jazireh-ye Sargardani and Sarban-e Sargardan, these two novels contain certain elements of the philosophical thought of existentialism. Here, we have interpreted the predominance of elements such as freedom, choice, anxiety and wandering, preoccupation with life and death, in these two novels through the perspectives of contemporary thinkers and philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus. As stated in the text of the article, this interpretation is based on Gadamer’s text-centered hermeneutics and is the result of an encounter with the text of the two novels, independent of an investigation into or claim concerning the author’s intention.
In terms of the dominant element, we find Jazireh-ye Sargardani to be the site of the main character’s doubts, which ultimately lead to her existential wandering and her attention to existentialist issues. Hasti is an epistemically wandering character. In Sarban-e Sargardan, Hasti’s condition within the historical-social context of Iran in the 1950s and 1960s is that of a contemporary Iranian who has gone through the ideological conditions, saturated with certainty, of the period of struggle and, after the rejection of the ruling monarchical conditions, is confronted with conflicting epistemological and ideological systems, each of which, despite their conflict with one another, draws the Iranian human being toward itself through certainty and claims of happiness. The condition of this human being among these alternative and conflicting epistemological systems is an epistemic wandering that, in practice, leads to an existential and ontological bewilderment.
Hasti’s state of existential bewilderment is an existential wandering among metanarratives that, owing to the existing social conditions and context, fail to provide this character with certainty and a firm epistemological foundation. Ultimately, the main character of these two novels realizes that there is no haven of tranquility for this existential bewilderment and wandering except a return to life itself and the creation of the meaning of life through the creation of a work of art. On this basis, while taking into account the socio-historical context of the narratives of the two novels under discussion, this article offers an existentialist reading of them.
References
Aho, K. (2023) Existentialism. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2023/entries/existentialism/
Aloni, N. (1999) Education. In H. Gordon (Ed.), Dictionary of existentialism. Greenwood Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315062716
Camus, A. (1946) The stranger (A. A. Khabarehzadeh & J. Al-e Ahmad, Trans.; Persian translation). Kanoon-e Ma'refat. (Original work published 1942)
Camus, A. (1997) The fall (S. Farrokh, Trans.; Persian translation). Niloufar Publications. (Original work published 1956)
Charme, S. (1999) Life. In H. Gordon (Ed.), Dictionary of existentialism. Greenwood Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315062716
Daneshvar, S. (1977, October) Issues in contemporary art [Speech transcript, in Persian]. In Goethe Poetry Nights. Goethe Institute, Tehran, Iran. https://bonyadhomayoun.com/?p=7300
Daneshvar, S. (1993) Jazireh-ye Sargardani [Island of wandering] (in Persian). Kharazmi Publications.
Daneshvar, S. (2001) Sarban-e Sargardan [Wandering caravan leader] (in Persian). Kharazmi Publications.
Hannay, A. (2012) Kierkegaard’s single individual and the point of indirect communication. In S. Crowell (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to existentialism (pp. 73–95). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521513340.005
Hatab, L. J. (1999) Freedom. In H. Gordon (Ed.), Dictionary of existentialism. Greenwood Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315062716
Heidegger, M. (2008) Being and time (S. Jamadi, Trans.; Persian translation). Ghoghnoos Publications. (Original work published 1927)
Kierkegaard, S. (2001) Fear and trembling (A. Rashidian, Trans.; Persian translation). Ney Publishing. (Original work published 1843)
Macquarrie, J. (1997) Martin Heidegger (M. S. Hanaie Kashani, Trans.; Persian translation). Groos Publications.
Malpas, J. (2012) Existentialism as literature. In S. Crowell (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to existentialism (pp. 291–322). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521513340.015
McBride, W. (2012) Existentialism as a cultural movement. In S. Crowell (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to existentialism (pp. 50–72). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521513340.004
Palmer, R. E. (1998) Hermeneutics: Interpretation theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer (S. Hanaie Kashani, Trans.; Persian translation). Hermes Publications.
Sartre, J.-P. (1986) Nausea (A. J. A’lam, Trans.; Persian translation). Niloufar Publications. (Original work published 1938)
Sartre, J.-P. (2001) Existentialism and humanism (M. Rahimi, Trans.; Persian translation). Niloufar Publications. (Original work published 1946)
Schalow, F., & Denker, A. (2010) Historical dictionary of Heidegger’s philosophy. Scarecrow Press. https://doi.org/10.5771/9780810874930-313
Wolff, J., & Leopold, D. (2025) Karl Marx. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/
* M.A. in Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5487-1905
پالمر، ريچارد (1377) علم هرمنوتيک، ترجمه سعيد حنايي کاشاني، تهران، هرمس.
دانشور، سيمين (1372) جزيرة سرگرداني، تهران، خوارزمي.
----------- (1380) ساربان سرگردان، تهران، خوارزمي.
----------- (1356) «مسائل هنر معاصر»، سخنرانی در انستیتو گوته، قابل دسترسی در: https://bonyadhomayoun.com/?p=7300.
سارتر، ژان پل (1380) اگزیستانسیالیسم و اصالت بشر، مصطفی رحیمی، تهران، نیلوفر.
----------- (1365) تهوع، ترجمه، امیر جلال¬الدین اعلم، تهران، نیلوفر.
کامو، آلبر (1328) بیگانه، ترجمه علی¬اصغر خبره¬زاده و جلال آلاحمد، تهران، کانون معرفت.
-------- (1377) سقوط، ترجمه شورانگیز فرخ، تهران، نیلوفر.
کیرکگور، سورن (1380) ترس و لرز، ترجمه عبدالکریم رشیدیان، تهران، نشرنی.
مک کواري، جان (1376) مارتين هايدگر، ترجمة محمدسعيد حنايي¬کاشاني، تهران، گروس.
هايدگر، مارتين (1387) هستي و زمان، ترجمة سياوش جمادي، تهران، ققنوس.
Aho, Kevin (2023) “Existentialism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, pdf version of the entry “Existentialism”.
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2023/entries/existentialism.
Aloni, Nimrod (1999) “Education” in: Dictionary of existentialism, Edited by Gordon, Hạyim. Greenwood Press.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315062716.
Charme, Stuart (1999) “Life” in: Dictionary of existentialism, Edited by Gordon, Hạyim. Greenwood Press.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315062716.
Hannay, Alastair (2012) “Kierkegaard’s single individual and the point of indirect communication” in: Steven Crowell. The Cambridge Companion to Existentialism. Cambridge University Press. pp. 73-95.
https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521513340.005.
Hatab, Lawrence J. (1999) “Freedom” in: Dictionary of existentialism, Edited by Gordon, Hạyim. Greenwood Press.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315062716.
McBride, William (2012) “Existentialism as a cultural movement”, Steven Crowell. The Cambridge Companion to Existentialism. Cambridge University Press- pp.50-72.
https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521513340.004. Malpas, Jeff (2012) “Existentialism as literature”, in: Steven Crowell. The Cambridge Companion to Existentialism. Cambridge University Press. pp. 291-322.
https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521513340.015.
Schalow, Frank, and Denker, Alfred (2010) Historical Dictionary of Heidegger’s Philosophy, The Scarecrow Press.
https://doi.org/10.5771/9780810874930-313.
Wolff, Jonathan & Leopold, David (2025) “Karl Marx”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.