A Comparative Study of Critical Realism in Contemporary Kurdish and Persian Literature: The Kurdish Novel Three Steps to the Gallows and the Persian Novel The Valiants of Tangestan

Abstract

Over time, literature, through intercultural interactions, migration, colonialism, war, translation, and other forms of human activity, has continuously been subject to reciprocal influence with the literatures of other nations. The issue of literary influence and reception was conceptualized in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries within the framework of “comparative literature,” gradually leading to the emergence of schools such as the French and American schools in this field. The French School emphasizes establishing historical relationships and demonstrating direct influence between literary works, whereas the American School focuses on conceptual openness, interdisciplinarity, transcending national and linguistic boundaries, and the concept of “literariness.” Drawing on the approach of the American School, according to which similarities in structure and thematic correspondence may be identified among writers, this article comparatively examines critical realism in the Kurdish novel Three Steps to the Gallows and the contemporary Persian novel The Valiants of Tangestan. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present study seeks to evaluate the components of critical realism from a content-based perspective. The findings indicate that the novels The Most Beautiful Commander and The Valiants of Tangestan, through their use of simple language, realistic narration, and attention to social suffering and historical tensions, present a critical representation of power structures and social relations. They also contribute to a deeper understanding of the social, historical, and identity-related conditions of the communities from which these literary works have emerged.