The Representation of Family in the Selected Novels by Female Authors, Contemporary Three Decades (1360-90)

Since the novel has been historically investigated in the representation of society and social changes, it has been constantly at the center of sociologist’s attention. In Iran especially in the last decades, it has been observed the increase of female authors, so that novel is the only literary account in which the role of women in creation of it is equated with that of men. One of the main social themes in these novels is family. The research investigates five unpopular novels created by women talking advantage of semiotics. The findings of research illustrate that in the novels of three recent decades in Iran, the common theme is the female hero’s encountering with the tradition and modernity and the hero finally selects modernity despite tolerating great deal of difficulties and consequently she gets distant from her traditional world around. The women is traditionally represented as wife, mother, kind and patient character types which restate the view of traditional discourse towards women and she moves constantly towards modern identity and wondering issues. The portion of women in love and mating has increased while motherhood from the dominant element within the discourse of women’s identity has decreased so that the concern of motherhood is less observed and it is seen a kind of disagreement with the traditions of motherhood in these novels. Women are looking for new definitions from themselves as well as the family roles such as mating which is in relation with those definitions. Consequently, the mating relationship is represented with the tension of alteration and betrayal. Hence, family is regarded as the center of abundant changes and crises such as divorce, generation gap, and lack of understanding.