Samad Behrangi's Juvenile Political Works

In a closed and stuffy environment that limited the channels of political dialogue in the public sphere، inauguration of the Center for Intellectual Nurturing of Children and Teenagers in January 1966، acted as a political opening for critical intellectuals، rather than a step towards upgrading Iranian children. When explicit expression and sociopolitical critique was not possible، implicit and metaphoric language of literature acted as a cover for those demands that were repressed and threatened in the clear political dialogue. There is no doubt that propounding political demands in a juvenile language indicated the ineffectiveness، weakness and decline of public sphere and the lack of political maturity and political dialogue in Iran. Anyway، the result of the weakness and decline of public sphere and regime''s increasing pressures was the politicization of literature and in this regard، the politicization of children''s literature. The politicization of children''s literature means instrumental usage of children''s literature for political goals; a literature supposed to be، from a normative and ethical point of view، the most innocent part of literary products، due to its particular audience. Thus the destiny of children''s literature in 1960s and 1970s was determined in another way. The Center for Intellectual Nurturing of Children and Teenagers became a circle for opposition intellectuals، particularly the left-wing ones. In such circumstances، some writers of children''s literature such as Samad Behrangi were known as «teacher of masses» and a political figure in the public sphere، not as a writer of children''s literature. In this article، we will try to cast light on Behrangi''s «Black Little Fish» and «24 Hours in Sleep and Wakefulness» in order to decode some of their political messages that he tried to transmit through his juvenile stories. In both of these juvenile stories، albeit differently in each of them، Behrangi tries to depict a black and miserable image of Iran، contrary to the modern، Western-oriented and capitalist image depicted by the Pahlavi Regime. Her tries to represent his socialist، egalitarian، revolutionary and radical ideas in these stories. In order to decode these messages، we have reread and interpreted these two stories by using semiological techniques such as: illustrating the narrative structure of the works، writers'' selections for particular style and titles and words، and polarizations of the texts. We will try to declare some of political significations and meanings tacit behind the words and sentences of these texts.