The Storyteller's Canvas: The Life and Fiction of Simin Behbahani

摘要

This article addresses an important, usually neglected, aspect of the work of Simin Behbahani, namely her prose and fiction, mostly autobiographical writings, which should be indispensable to an understanding of her poetry. While Behbahni views her poetry to be about life in general and says that she utilizes the language of the people to compose her poems, she also finds prose a more appropriate form for writing on certain topics. With an examination of a number of her prose writings, including “An Mard, Mard-e Hamraham” [“That Man, My Companion”], “Ba Qalb-e Khod Cheh Kharidam” [“What I Bought with My Heart”], and “Kelid-o Khanjar” [“Key and Dagger”], the article explores the poet as a storyteller and the link between her poetry and fictional prose, especially in terms of her life story.