37 pages • 1 hour read
Sadegh HedayatThe Blind Owl
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1936A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Sadegh Hedayat
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide.
Sadegh Hedayat (1903-1951) was born to a wealthy, highly educated, well-connected family in Tehran, Iran. His father was a literary historian. Hedayat was educated in a French-language school in Iran and in 1925 went to Belgium and France to pursue university studies in civil engineering. Later, he also studied French literature. His progress in university courses was poor and he was unable to complete his degree.
In 1930, Hedayat returned to Tehran, where he worked at a bank and was active in the Iranian literary community. From 1936 to 1937, Hedayat lived in Bombay (now Mumbai), India where he studied Middle Persian with the Zoroastrian community and produced his self-published edition of The Blind Owl. The work is marked with these Indian and Zoroastrian influences from that time period.
In 1941, Reza Shah Pahlavi, the conservative leader of Iran, was forced to abdicate following the invasion of Iran by the Allied British and Soviet forces. He was replaced by his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who became the last shah of Iran. The abdication of Reza Shah created opportunities for greater freedom of expression in Iranian cultural production, which Hedayat took active part in as a writer and editor of the literary journal Soḵan. However, by 1945, Hedayat had become alienated because of political and cultural differences with leftists, intellectuals, and his own family. In particular, Hedayat repudiated traditional Persian literature and Iranian cultural in general. He also developed depression and substance misuse disorder.
In 1950, a friend of his arranged for a short-term visa to travel to Paris, France. In France, like so many immigrants, he struggled to extend his visa and find suitable work because he did not have any academic credentials. On April 9th, 1951, Hedayat’s body was found in his small Parisian apartment after he died by suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Literary Context: Modernism
The Blind Owl is considered a major work of modernist literature and Hedayat’s magnum opus. The complex, highly surreal novella incorporates a vast array of Hedayat’s influences. Although definitions vary, modernism in literature primarily refers to works from the late-19th century to mid-20th century that deviate from traditional forms and imagery, often engaging in experimental forms of narration, such as stream-of-consciousness. Rather than breaking entirely from traditional forms, Hedayat’s work wrestles with literary expectations, recombining them in novel and sometimes disturbing ways. The Blind Owl contains elements of Persian classical literature, traditional Islamic symbolism, modernist French, Russian, and German literature, and surrealist imagery.
Persian literature is a point of pride in Iranian culture. Persian literary forms have a history that dates to at least the 9th century and are typically written in Middle Persian, the language Hedayat studied in India. The best-known literary form is Persian lyrical poetry, and especially Persian love poems and mystical religious poetry such as that written by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (Rumi) in the 13th century. In The Blind Owl, Hedayat references and transforms symbols from classical Persian literature, such as the cypress, the idealized, virginal dancing woman, and the consumption of wine. Hedayat was particularly interested in Zoroastrianism, the religion in ancient Iran until the Muslim conquest in the 7th century. In The Blind Owl, Hedayat uses symbolism from Zoroastrianism, such as dogs as the guardian of death. In doing so, Hedayat creates volatile connections between his own work and Iranian literary history.
Having been educated in the French language and literary culture, Hedayat’s work is in close dialogue with European literary trends in addition to the Persian influences already noted. For instance, Guy de Maupassant’s short stories about sexual desire, mortality, and poetic “madness,” such as “Suicides” and “Crazy?”, have many parallels with the themes of The Blind Owl. The reconstitution of traditional sources and forms in jarring, sometimes violent arrangements in the novella recalls The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, which is often considered the modernist literary work par excellence. The density of references, non-linear and highly symbolic narrative mode, and interpretative engagement with past and present make The Blind Owl a key modernist literary work.
