A Romantic Reading of Bijan Najdi’s Short Stories

The school of Romanticism, as a sociological, intellectual and artistic school which emerged at late of the 18th c., influenced the literature of other nations, notably Iran. The signs of such an influence on different Persian works are traceable from the Constitutionalism. Bijan Najdi is one of authors who has a romantic point of view when dealing with different issues. By mixing poetry and fiction and making much use of poetic elements and emotional contents, he invented a new style. The concern of the present research is a romantic reading his short stories with a descriptive-analytic methodology. The findings of the present research indicate that among the different elements of Romanticism, Bijan Najdi focused mostly on naturalism, love, past, sorrow and disappointment, and dreams. Furthermore, the renunciation of industry and urban civilization and favoring flora and fauna and transferring emotions and feelings from characters to nature are other naturalistic characteristics of Bijan Najdi’s short stories. Love in his short stories dominated the reason of his characters and they love man, nature and animals. To gain emancipation from sorrow, he takes refuge in past—youth and teenage. Some of his characters also to escape from the bitters facts of life take refuge in dream, objectifying their unfulfilled desires. On the other hand, in Bijan Najdi’s short stories such fictional elements as words, images, tone and ambiance possess an organic unity, suggesting an effective romantic perspective.