Fiction in University: A Critical Review of Fiction Course in Persian Literature and Language B.A. Program of Iranian Universities

In this paper, the course of fiction, as a subset of optional courses in the second stage of literary techniques of Persian language and literature B.A. Program ‎ (approved on 2012/6/24 by the Council of Planning for Higher Education), has been critically examined in two related areas. First, the course of the fiction, including the target, headings and resources is examined in detail; and secondly, in a macro perspective, the position of this course is analyzed in the overall structure of the program. In the lesson explanations, there is a fundamental methodological objection in the target section. In this section, an introduction to drama comes along with other forms and types of fiction, while drama itself is an independent literary genre, and it is by no means a subset of fictional literature. In the headings section, there are numerous writing mistakes, and the literary genre of drama is misclassified under the title of fiction; the diversity and multiplicity of the ten headings have led the scope of work to exceed the boundaries of a two-unit course. In the section of main references, the outdated and incomplete references to the resources are the main weaknesses, and in the section of research resources, given the general title of the course, references are not accurate and, moreover, they are not updated. In the macro perspective, a fundamental assumption has been neglected in the B.A. program of Persian Language and Literature, and that is, all the classical and contemporary Persian literary texts (including poetry and prose) should be taught, revised, and readout based on new literary theories, when they are included in academic studies. With this assumption, and regarding to the global classifications, while paying particular attention to modern literary theories, the structure of this program should be divided into three main sections: poetry, fiction and drama. In this case, fiction literature will become one of the main parts of the triple parts of the B.A. program instead of being in an optional position.