Simin Daneschwar
Simin Daneschwar , internationally also Simin Daneshvar ( Persian سیمین دانشور, DMG Sīmīn Dānešwar, Sīmīn Dānišwar ; * April 28, 1921 in Shiraz , southern Iran ; † 8. March 2012 ) is an Iranian author of short stories and novels . Her novel Suwaschun ("Drama of Sorrow") is considered a masterpiece of Iranian prose of the 20th century . Here she deals with the domestic and foreign political situation in Iran before the Islamic Revolution and its impact on the private life of her protagonist Zari.
Live and act
After graduating from the English school in her hometown, she studied literature in Tehran , where she lived in an American boarding school. Although her parents were wealthy and her father was a doctor, she already worked during her studies for Radio Tehran and the newspaper “Iran”, where she published short stories under the pseudonym “Shiraziye Binam” in the early 1940s . In 1948 she was the first Iranian woman to publish a volume of short stories entitled “Das extinguished Fire” ( Ātesch chamūsch ), which had previously appeared in the daily newspaper “Keyhān”, the women's magazine “Bānu” and the magazine “Omid”. Also in 1948, which was also the year of her doctorate in literature, she met the writer and essayist Jalāl Āl-e Ahmad . In 1950 she married Jalāl Āl-e Ahmad, whose father was against his son's association with a woman who did not wear an Islamic headgear .
Even after her marriage, Simin Daneschwar remained literary. She went abroad and studied from 1952 to 1954 with a Fulbright scholarship at Stanford University (USA). After returning to Iran, she taught from 1961 until her retirement in 1981 as an associate professor at the humanities faculty of the University of Tehran , where she was refused a full professorship because of her critical attitude. In 1968 she was elected as the first woman to chair the newly founded Iranian Writers' Union. Since her husband divorced for unknown reasons in 1969, she had lived alone as a freelance writer in Tehran.
Works
- Sarebān-e Sargardān ("The Wandering Camel Rider ")
- Dschazire-ye Sargardāni ("The Wandering Island")
- Māh ("The Moon")
- Suwaschun ("drama of grief")
- Schahri mesle behescht ("A city like paradise")
- Be ki salām konam? ("Who should I greet?")
She has also translated works by George Bernard Shaw , Anton Chekhov , Alberto Moravia , Nathaniel Hawthorne , William Saroyan and Arthur Schnitzler .
German editions
The first novel in German is "Drama of Mourning" ( Su wa Schun , Persian سووشن, ISBN 978-3-930761-07-4 ). This was followed by the volume of short stories "Ask the migratory birds" ( ISBN 978-3-930761-26-5 ) and stories in several anthologies.
Web links
- Literature by and about Simin Daneschwar in the catalog of the German National Library
- Article Simin Daneshvar in the Iranchamber (English)
- Article at mage.com (English)
- "Simin Daneshwar" in article about Iranian women authors of the 20th century (German)
Remarks
- ↑ "سیمین دانشور درسن 90 سالگی درگذشت" ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Persian). Hamshahri Online. March 8, 2012.
- ↑ The name refers to the mythological figure Siyawasch and his mourning ceremony
- ↑ cf. Web links
- ↑ Christopher de Bellaigue: In the rose garden of the martyrs. A portrait of Iran. From the English by Sigrid Langhaeuser, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006 (English original edition: London 2004), on Simin Daneschwar: pp. 248–257
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Daneschwar, Simin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Daneshvar, Simin; Daneschwar, Simin; Daneshwar, Simin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Iranian author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 28, 1921 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Shiraz , southern Iran |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 2012 |