Philosophical Reading of Death-Awareness in Kelidar 's Novel (With Emphasis on Martin Heidegger's Being and Time)

The present article is a philosophical reading of death-awareness in the Kelidar by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, based on the thought system of Heidegger, the 20th century philosopher, in the book of  Being and time. In this essay, we first talked about the philosophical reading of a literary work, then by explaining Heidegger's ontology, we have been talking about the death-awareness in his view and the relationship between man and Being and his or her existence oriented towards death. Then, by expressing death-awareness in Kelidar, we have obtained a reading of this novel based on Heidegger's philosophy. Heidegger considers man and the world to be necessary for each other and believes that Dasein is not alone in the world and the presence of others makes the character of Dasein meaningful. A person who is under the domination of others is without authenticity. But death-awareness gives authenticity to Dasein. Heidegger considers authentic living to be meaningful and considers the thought of death as a force to break away from everyday life and the meaningful life. Choosing freely, not being subject to others, not having daily fun and giving meaning to life are the consequences that Heidegger deals with; and we can look at Kelidar from these angles. Dowlatabadi has paid attention to the issue of death and examined it. In Kelidar, death is one of the main themes. Dowlatabadi considers death and life to be cognate and considers death to be the cause of gaining the world, making life purposeful and achieving perfection. He considers the awareness of death to be unique to the nobleman, and the heroes of Kelidar welcome death. Dowlatabadi considers the nature of death to be anxiety-inducing, and characters of Kelidar turn to life and love to escape from the anxiety of death.