A Deconstructive Analysis of Two Stories by Bizhan Najdi

Najdi is one of the outstanding contemporary writers due to his specific style. He has a different attitude towards human life and cultural elements of Iran, which makes his stories a good subject for discussion and research. In this article, two stories of Najdi are analyzed in the light of Deconstruction: “The Day of Asb-rizi” and “The Night of Killing Sohrab”. Deconstruction is mostly based on Derrida’s theory. It originated and was initially used in Philosophy and then it spread to literary criticism. The aim of Deconstruction is to find the binary oppositions, to analyze them in order to reveal the contradictory points and to deny the accepted assumptions. The results of this process is to doubt those beliefs that have been considered as axiomatic up to that time. In Najdi’s stories, the binary oppositions include man/animal, man/nature and man and civilization. In “The Day of Asb-rizi”, the opposition between man and animal, and, freedom and slavery causes some contradictions in the major themes of the story. In “The Night of Killing Sohrab”, the binary opposition is that of harsh patriarchal world/ innocent childish world, or, experience/inexperience.