Resumen de The Fate of Women in Four Contemporary Iranian Novels: The Bildungsroman as an Analytical Framework

Claus Valling Pedersen

• Abstract Bildungsroman is an often-used genre in female Iranian writers’ novels. This article will bring short, comparative analyses of four such novels with a point of departure in defining the genre. The four novels are Simin Dānešvar’s Savušun, Šahrnuš Pārsipur’s Sag va zemestān-e boland, Zoyā Pirzād’s Čerāġhā-rā man ḫāmuš mikonam, and Parinuš Ṣaniʿi’s Sahm-e man. The article attempts to show that the four novels have at least one theme and a central confrontational scene in common and that they all draw a bleak picture of the possibility of an emerging liberation of women in Iranian society.