Kurdish fiction: From writing as resistance to aestheticised commitment
Kurdish fiction: From writing as resistance to aestheticised commitment

Summary/Abstract: The establishment of modern Iran in 1925 accelerated a centralisation policy, which resulted in the oppression of Iran’s national and cultural diversity. Under such unfavourable conditions, Kurdish fiction had a stuttering start with only three works since the publication of the first Kurdish novel in 1961 up until 1991, when the number of Kurdish fictional works produced in Iran began to increase steadily. This article addresses the question of commitment and aesthetics in Kurdish prose fiction by examining a short story collection and three novels published between 1961 and 2002. Whereas the earlier Kurdish writers primarily viewed fiction as a medium for cultural preservation and national liberation, around the turn of the 20th century a generation of Kurdish writers appeared who were as equally concerned with aesthetics as with politics.

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