World Literature in Iranian Persian Literature Textbooks

Authors

  • Babak Shamshiri Shiraz University
  • Massih Zekavat nonaffiliated

Keywords:

world literature, content analysis, Iranian Curriculum, Adabīyyāt-i Fārsī (Persian Literature) textbooks

Abstract

This article analyzes the inclusion/exclusion of works of world literature in the Iranian national curriculum. To investigate the status of world literature, five AdabÄ«yyÄt-i FÄrsÄ«, i.e. Persian Literature, textbooks are selected from Iranian high school curriculum. Content analysis is administered to explore the status of world literature in these textbooks. The results convey that the share of world literature is slim and its inclusion follows a systematic procedure in line with State ideological and doctrinal principles. This systematic procedure is further explained with recourse to its various causes and consequences. The books’ homogenizing, ethnocentric, androcentric and heterosexist attitudes; their national, religious, and linguistic chauvinism; their cultural traditionalism and conservatism; as well as the role of educational system as an Ideological State Apparatus are among factors that cause this curriculum blindness. But the neglect of world literature as an essential element in the curriculum of contemporary education or a selective approach toward it has its aftermath. Accordingly, different studies have treated Iranian textbooks as hanging threats against international peace.

However, due to their powerful rivals which work against them and can resist and subvert their ideological intentions, Iranian textbooks are not thoroughly successful in interpellating all subjects in accordance with their intentions, although it might initially seem that they are promoting a monologic and totalitarian order which aims at the exclusion of others and expansionism. In the end, it is suggested that school curricula should dedicate a fairer part to the just representation of others through world literature.

 

 

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Published

2014-02-15

How to Cite

Shamshiri, B., & Zekavat, M. (2014). World Literature in Iranian Persian Literature Textbooks. Asian Journal of Education and E-Learning, 2(1). Retrieved from https://ajouronline.com/index.php/AJEEL/article/view/767

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2014): February 2014

Section

Articles

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