Comparative Analysis and Comparison of Police and Detective Literature Components in the Works of Agatha Christie and Ismail Fasih

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
elham arabshahi kashi 1
Reza Shajari 2
1 A graduate of the Ph.D. course in Persian language and literature, Faculty of Persian language and literature, Kashan University (teacher of the field and university)
2 Associate Professor and faculty member of the Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, Kashan University
Abstract
Ismail Fasih is one of the most famous and prolific writers in the field of fiction, especially police and detective literature. Some of his works such as Shahbaz and Jagdan, Sharab Kham, Dard Siavash, Del Kor etc. mostly have a police and detective aspect despite the fame of this author. As the results of this research show, he was strongly influenced by Agatha Christie and her detective novels. Thus, if we compare the police-related works of these two authors, we can find many common elements in the field of police literature in their works. Ismail Fasih was influenced by Agatha Christie not only in the choice of the narrator's language and the way of characterization, but also in the choice of the plot of some stories. This assertion can be proved by comparing the texts of the two authors. In this research, the authors have tried to explain and prove the influence of Agatha Christie's eloquence in a descriptive-analytical way and with the method of library documents. This is a work that has not been done before by the researchers and critics of fiction literature and it is new in its kind.



Extended Abstract

Introduction

Detective fiction is one of the most popular branches of fiction all over the world. Mystery novels are one of the types of this literary genre that rely on the detective element and try to decipher the strange crime that has happened. The father of this style is Edgar Allan Poe and the queen is Agatha Christie. In Iran, the study of police stories in the style of Western literature began with the end of the Qajar period and gradually became one of the most popular genres in the years 1320-1300. The translation of such stories from the end of this period encouraged Iranian writers to create such works. Amir Ashiri (born in 1303 A.H. in Tehran) can be called one of the founders of police literature in Iran with 58 historical, criminal and police books. He was mainly influenced by the James Bond movies. Ismail Fasih is also one of the other authors of the police genre whose works were very popular in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s. Of course, Fasih also had a significant influence in this field, and by comparing literature, one can understand the similarities between these writers and the greats of the police genre. Although police literature is one of the new genres of literature, it has a long history, and in order to explore its roots, one should refer to the history of all the murders and the human efforts in the field of discovering the murderer. It can be said that the human desire for myth-making and storytelling and the discovery of the mysteries that are at the core of such stories have caused the emergence of such a genre. The main elements of detective-police stories and films are: "mystery", "murderer", "victim", "detective", "suspect". By studying these elements in the works of famous Iranian and foreign writers and based on the rules of comparative literature, it is possible to study the whole intellectual and literary exchanges of these writers on an extraterritorial level. As in this work, when a number of Ismail Fasih's works are studied on the basis of the principles of comparative literature, his entire intellectual and literary exchanges with Agatha Christie, one of the pioneers of crime literature in the West, are also studied.

2. Literature Review

Fasih is one of the pioneers of police and crime literature in Iran, whose story-writing style is a combination of Western and Iranian narrative styles and is strongly influenced by the writing style of great writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie. In this research, while analyzing and examining a number of Agatha Christie's eloquent novels, a comparative comparison and examination of the storytelling style and practical techniques of these two authors is also revealed, and it becomes clear that Agatha Christie's footprints can be seen in many of his eloquent works.

3.Methodology

In this research, the authors have tried to explain and prove the influence of Agatha Christie's eloquence in a descriptive-analytical way and with the method of library documents. It is a work that has not been done before by the researchers and critics of fiction literature and it is new in its kind.

4. Results

Detective literature is one of the most important branches of fiction literature, which has many fans all over the world, including Iran. The researches have shown that Fasih has artistic, literary and intellectual creativity and was able to create harmony between the dialogues and characters. However, in some of the themes and characterizations and story lines and the creation of plot spaces, similarities can be seen between his works and the works of Agatha Christie, although these similarities do not indicate a direct influence of the Iranian writer from the West; rather, it is mostly the result of the requirements of the detective genre. In the comparison of Agatha Christie's and Ismail Fasih's narrative style and techniques, an attempt has been made to examine these similarities as well as the differences to some extent; As in the eloquent detective novels, he has been very powerful in describing the characters, creating a state of suspense and using ambiguity and doubt in the audience's mind and creating a protagonist like Agatha. But in Agatha's works, the variety of fictional characters and the creation of complex puzzles and the creation of an atmosphere of terror are much more. In other words, Fasih's narrative style is a combination of Western and Iranian narrative styles, and it can be said that while studying and reviewing the works of Western writers in this genre, Fasih was able to implement the results of his studies in the best possible way. localize and attract the attention of the audience.

Keywords

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Literary Criticism
Volume 16, Issue 61
Summer 2023
Pages 183-239