The Reception of Ernest Hemingway in Iran after the Islamic Revolution: A study of The Old Man and the Sea and To Have and Have Not

This article investigates how the literary reception of Ernest Hemingway in Iran in the first two decades after the Islamic Revolution is formed by cultural and ideological implications. The theoretical framework of this study is based on S.S. Prawer and Roger Asselineau’s notion of reception theory as a branch of study in comparative literature. The methodology entails a chronological study of translations, and cinematic adaptations of the author’s oeuvres. This study devotes itself to the study of the two most reprinted and translated works which depict a huge difference in the number of translations and reprints compared to Hemingway’s other works. As Such, the following outcomes are deliberated: besides the international fame of Hemingway, his continuing success in Iran can be related to the ideology of the translator, and the director, who deploy Hemingway’s novels as a prism to reflect Iranians’ stoic perseverance and mythical desire for freedom and fight against despotism as manifested in the legend of Jamshid. Hemingway’s code hero, undergoing stoic perseverance in hardship and war embody Iranians’ passage through a turbulent historical event after Revolution. Struggling with unemployment, war, and frustrated hopes, Iranians find Hemingway’s novels as a way to cope with arising problems during and after war. This article also explicates why reception of this particular work in Iran differs from its universal trend.