Introduction to Reza Baraheni's "Exilic Blindness: The Unwritten Autobiography of a Dramatist in Paris Posthumously Dictated to a Friend"

Introduction to Reza Baraheni's "Exilic Blindness: The Unwritten Autobiography of a Dramatist in Paris Posthumously Dictated to a Friend" JOANNE MACKAY-BENNETT The essay that accompanies this introduction was written by Reza Baraheni, a writer who has experienced first-hand the vicissitudes of a life lived in exile. His essay is a personal recollection offriend and colleague, Gholam-Hossein Sa' edi. Like the in-between world that artists in exile negotiate, it is a text that can be read as both primary document and creative work. Reza Baraheni was born in Tabriz, the capital city of the province of Azarbaijan', Iran, in 1935. He was educated in Iran and Turkey and was awarded a doctorate in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Istanbul. Widely known as a poet, Baraheni has played an instrumental role in the establishment of modern literary criticism in Iran. Adding to a prolific number of publications (more than 50 books), two of his novels have recently been published in France: Les Saisons en enfer du jeune Ayydz as well as a second edition of Shehtirazade et Son Romancier. In April-May 2003, a performance based on selections from the former novel adapted and directed by Thierry Bedard toured France. Entitled En Enfer, the production is part of Bedard's ongoing cycle of work based on la bibliotheque censuree of the International Parliament of Writers. A native speaker of Azeri-Turkish, one of many dialects that has historically been suppressed in Iran, Baraheni was prohibited from formal schooling in his mother tongue except for a brief period at the end of the Second World War when a Soviet-backed autonomous government was installed in Azarbaijan. Profoundly disturbed by the injustices that he witnessed as a youth, and later, by a cultural policy that sanctioned only those works written in the official language of Persian, thereby enforcing silence on sixty per cent of its population, Baraheni voiced public opposition to the oppression of nationalities in Iran. His open condemnation of censorship led to his imprisonment and torture in 1973 (Baraheni, Crowned Cannibals 110,1 [4- [5). Modern Drama, 46: I (Spring 2003) 108 Introduction to Reza Baraheni's "Exilic Blindness" 109 Baraheni was also a prisoner of the Khomeini regime during the fall of 198 I and for a major pan of the winter of 1982. He remains an outspoken critic of a government that legislates over half of its population into linguistic exile at home and that severely restricts freedom of speech among its anists and intellectuals .' Reza Baraheni has lived in Toronto, Canada, since 1996 and is currently concluding his term as President of PEN Canada. He teaches at the University of Toronto's Centre for Comparative Literature where he has been a Visiting Professor since 1998. In his creative essay, "Exilic Blindness: The Unwritten Autobiography of a Dramatist in Paris Posthumously Dictated to a Friend," Baraheni assumes the voice of playwright and fellow-Tabrizi, Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi (1935-1985). A psychiatrist by profession, Sa'edi authored over thiny plays, many of which were written as pantomimes under the pseudonym of Gohannorad. Sa'edi is celebrated today as one of Iran's most significant playwrights. He is remembered for dramatic works that critique the corruption of the Pahlavi era during the 1960s and 1970S and the failures of the Islamic Revolution during the 1980s. In addition to the plays, Sa'edi's published work includes fiction, ethnographic studies of Iranian folklore, and screenplays. One of his screenplays, The Cow, co-authored with Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui, received international critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival in 1971 when it was awarded the FIPRESCI prize. Throughout most of his working life, Sa'edi suffered continual harassment and torture at the hands of SAVAK (the Iranian secret police).' Yet he remained deeply committed to the people of Iran and resisted the idea of living abroad for as long as possible. Remarking in an interview that the genesis of his artistic creativity lay in his dynamic, personal relationships with the people of Iran, Baraheni added: "If I become disconnected from the people, my writing would be based only on memory" ("Iranian Visitor"). Sa'edi left...