Ardashnikova A.N.

The article deals with the history of anthological genre in Iran of XIII–XIX c. and shows its evolution from entertaining literature to literary criticism. Development of the genre demonstrates transformation both in the character of narrative and the principles of classification.

The article is devoted to the little-studied period of the development of Persian Literature, which, nevertheless, can be characterized as an important stage in the stylistic evolution of the traditional poetry. The works of one of the most popular poets of the period Hatef Isfahani (died in 1784) show the process of formation of the new poetic style, based on the idea of returning to the classical norm. Hatef’s poetry demonstrates both the gap with the closest predecessors and significant differences with the stable repertoire of classical poetic motifs.

Using Reza Khan’s travel diary about his campaign in Khuzestan, the article examines how the future shah justified his claim to the Iranian throne. It analyzes the diary’s political purpose and the use of Iranian cultural tradition to construct the image of a modern ruler.

Based on the study of the original memoir source “My Biography” by A. Mostoufi, verified by the testimonies of foreign observers, the article examines one of the minor social groups of Iran’s urban population in the second half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century. As an integral part of the Iranian city, this group is often viewed by researchers as amorphous and marginal, lacking stable characteristics that would define its homogeneity and permanence, which is also reflected in the contradictory meanings of the lexeme luti. Having analyzed the features of luti as a distinct group actor with its own moral, behavioral, and professional characteristics, the authors conclude that its officially low social status directly contradicts the significance it possessed in the socio-cultural life of the urban community. A wide range of role functions secured this group social prestige in the eyes of both the local patriciate and the democratic part of the urban population.

The process of studying modern Iranian literature has just begun. This article is the first attempt in Russian and foreign Iranian philology to systematize and analyze a representative block of modern women’s prose works. The scale of this phenomenon, which got a special impetus for development in the republican period, deserves to be in the focus of research, taking into consideration both the vector of development of Iranian literature and its non-literary role as an important social factor. The main features of women’s prose are the expansion of the thematic range and expressive means used by the authors. The stylistic diversity of women’s prose (social realism, fiction, magical realism) is combined with the similarity of its topic — the denial of the woman’s image in its traditional interpretation.