Journal of Literary Criticism

Journal of Literary Criticism

Representation of war in the "concrete totality" of the novel (A reflection on the realism of three prominent novels of war in the 1960s)

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Foad Moloudi
Associate Professor of Persian language and Literature, Literary Studies Department, Institute for Research and Development in the Humanities (SAMT). Tehran, Iran
10.22034/jlc.2025.491479.1693
Abstract
The present article is a sociological analysis of three novels of the war imposed in the 1980s: scorched earth by Ahmad Mahmoud (1982), Winter 62 by Ismail Fasih (1987), and In the Flames of Water by Seyed Morteza Mardiha (1989). The fundamental concept in this article is "totality"."Totality" is a central concept in the Lukacsian tradition (a sociology of the novel that focuses on form); Because one of the main problems of the sociology of the novel in the 20th century is to understand how to represent the social construction and its ideological forms in the "concrete totality" of the novel. Based on this, in this article, we have shown that the three mentioned novels are almost realistic novels that aim to represent "the totality of war". We have found out how the forms and social forces in the great event of "imposed war" have become "narrative representation" in the concrete totality of these novels and how the dialectic of "detail based on the misfortune of war/totality based on the transcendence of the necessity of defending the homeland" was in them. The form of these novels has been a synthesis for the essentialism of two idea-oriented and detail-oriented groups: the unfortunate and catastrophic components of war, although they are not denied and are represented in the most naked way possible, but remain at the level of their "detail"; And from their combination and connection and relationship with the "transcendental pillar" of the necessity of defending the homeland and cause, a whole emerges that is beyond the parts and does not conflict with war for the purpose of self-defense.
Keywords
Totality
Detail
Sociology of the novel
Transcendental Element
War
Subjects
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Journal of Literary Criticism
Volume 10, Issue 19
April 2026
Pages 498-459

  • Receive Date 30 November 2024
  • Revise Date 01 January 2025
  • Accept Date 12 January 2025