Decentralization of Postmodern Discourse from Grand Narratives in the Works of Mohammad Hassan Shahsavari

The postmodern decentralization of metanarratives is not limited to the text but has expanded into a discursive space with a hybrid approach ranging from text to social practice. Therefore, postmodern fictions can be studied as a complex of discursive practices at various levels concerning different types of metanarratives. This research attempts, by moving away from case studies and drawing inspiration from Moretti’s “distant reading” method and Fairclough's three-dimensional model of discourse, to critique the "discursive space" of Mohammad Hassan Shahsavari's works and to delineate its relationship with various metanarratives at the three levels of text, discursive practice, and social practice. The results indicate that the manifestation of decentralization is more prominent in the text than in the other levels. On the other hand, the balance of the communicative network has somewhat distanced itself from the absolute centrality of one of the three elements: author-text-reader. However, attention to the active role of the reader remains less pronounced. Furthermore, at the social level, although confrontational actions against the metanarratives of the literary and political establishments are observed, overall, not only Shahsavari and his works but also his readers, due to their social position, are still in the captivity of believing in many types of metanarratives and are unable to transcend them.