Socialist Realism in Kurdish Literature: Investigating Ibrahim Ahmed’s Works

The term realism refers to the literary movement that emerged in England and France in the nineteenth century. Socialist realism is a type of realism that deals with the social analysis, study, and visualization of social relations and other related issues. A significant characteristic of social realism is its attention to the man and his problems in society. The novel Jani Gal (The Pain of the Nation), written by Ibrahim Ahmad, is a prominent example of the realistic works in Kurdish literature. Ibrahim Ahmad tries to represent the people and their social circumstances in the way they are in the real life of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. The realistic style clarifies the facts; however, the author should not clearly express his political and social attitude. Adopting a descriptive-analytical method, the present study attempts to analyze Jani Gal as a socialist-realistic novel and its three basic principles, which include; political orientation, ideological views, and nationalism. Ibrahim Ahmed has been thus introduced in the present study as the representative of socialist realism in Kurdish literature.