Post-Revolutionary Iranian Literature in the World and in the Persian Cultural System

In this concluding chapter, I bring together the reflections from the first part of the book on the place of post-revolutionary Iranian literature in contemporary Iran, and those from the second part of the book on its circulation outside of the Iranian borders. I discuss the position that post-revolutionary Iranian literature has in these two spaces and reflect on how this has evolved in the past forty years. The chapter starts by analysing two books that have had an important circulation outside of Iran: ‘The Book of Fate’ ‘ by Parinoush Saniee and ‘Censoring an Iranian Love Story’ by Shahriar Mandanipour. I then make a comparison between literature and other arts (cinema and visual arts) to find what is specific to literature in the place and circulation of Persian art products. Finally, I argue that Iranian literature is slowly being replaced in the Persian cultural system both within Iran and abroad, by visual media. This is a major shift in the history of Persian culture which has been dominated by the literary for centuries.