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Abstract
It has been said of Atiq Rahimi's novel Earth and Ashes that the author intends it to convey a loss of any vision for a better future in Afghanistan. This essay neither disputes nor affirms this, but instead argues that this tone of disillusionment is sustained for a specific purpose—namely, to show how a belief in the Afghan requirement of vengeance helps sustain cycles of violence in Afghanistan. No critical work has explored this key motivation for the writing of the novel; this article does so using a method of close reading that enables an evaluation of the role the reader is afforded as part of this endeavor, be they natives or outsiders to this culture.
Keywords:
Notes
1 Mujahideen is the term used to describe those who fought against the Afghan communist government and their Soviet allies.
2 Rashid, “The Afghan Resistance,” 205. In the book in which this article is published (The Great Game Revisited), Rashid is said to be a member of Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami, a traditionalist-nationalist political party that was based in Peshawar. Klass, The Great Game Revisited, 549; Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, 211–12.
3 His characterization of Afghan identity is based on the precepts of the Pashtuns' Pashtunwali tribal code, which Rashid claims to have greatly “permeated the culture of the other ethnic communities.” Rashid, “The Afghan Resistance,” 205. To see how unsubstantiated such a claim might be, see Barfield, Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History, 17–65. The Pashtuns make up roughly 40 percent of Afghanistan's population, the next largest group being the Tajiks at around 30 percent. The other major groups are the Hazaras, Aimaqs, Uzbeks and Turkmen. See Jawad, Afghanistan: A Nation of Minorities, 9–13.
4 With my use of the term “Afghan,” throughout the essay, unless otherwise indicated, I refer to all the inhabitants of Afghanistan, not only the Pashtun ethnic group. The use of this term, like that of Afghanistan, is simply for reasons of convenience.
5 Constable, “Dysfunction and Dread,” B03.
6 Hopkins, The Making of Modern Afghanistan, 1.
7 Fowler, Chasing Tales, 28; Hopkins, The Making of Modern Afghanistan, 24–5.
8 Hopkins, The Making of Modern Afghanistan, 20–21. Importantly, this documentation was focused on encounters with the western and eastern Pashtun tribes found near the borders of British India; other ethnic groups were usually only made note of in reference to their subservience to Pashtun political authority. This partly accounts for the focus on Pashtun tribal custom, Pashtunwali, in western descriptions of “Afghan” culture, in general, to the present day. See Hopkins, The Making of Modern Afghanistan, 23.
9 Rahimi, “We Became Trapped,” 20.
10 Shamel, “Afghanistan and the Persian Epic Shahnama,” 221.
11 For example, he compares Rahimi's work with the “self-reflexive modernist stories” of Spozhmai Zaryab and the dramatic war narratives of Razaq Mamoon. Ahmadi, Modern Persian Literature, 142–7.
12 At the time of writing Rahimi has had four novels published, the third of which, his first to be written in French rather than Dari, Syngué Sabour, won him the Prix Goncourt in 2008 (first published in 2008 by P.O.L. Éditeur; later published in English translation as The Patience Stone in 2010 by Chatto and Windus). Rahimi has also directed two films that are adapted from his books: Earth and Ashes (2004) and The Patience Stone (2012).
13 Rahimi, “Literary Currents Series,” paragraph 23.
14 Rahimi, “Afghan Culture Now!,” 7.
15 Rahimi, “We Became Trapped,” 20. For Rahimi's description of how the actions of the Taliban influenced him, see Rahimi, “Dialogue with Atiq Rahimi,” paragraph 4.
16 This approach of Rahimi's is by no means unique in Afghan literature. Anders Widmark describes how “internal critique upon the destructive and counterproductive effects resulting from honour-based violence, tribal feuds and revenge” can be seen in many Pashto short stories “from the 1930s and onwards.” Widmark, “Experiences of Revenge,” 7.
17 Mills, “Gnomics,” 233.
18 Ibid., 223. There are in fact over twenty main languages but also numerous other dialects spoken throughout Afghanistan. Jawad, Afghanistan: A Nation of Minorities, 7. Dari, however, is often used as a lingua franca and has been characterized as an important “unifying force” alongside Islam. Olszewska, “‘A Desolate Voice',” 206.
19 Ahmadi, Modern Persian Literature, 55–7. However, Wali Ahmadi describes how the short story became the “dominant form of modern fiction [in Afghanistan] from the 1960s onwards.” Rather than the novel, he says, “a kind of novelized short story” form was favored because it was “precisely the forum necessary to engage with society, to contest forms of authority, to interrogate the conjunction of politics and aesthetics, and to enclose the interface of history and representation.” Ibid., 84–5.
20 Rahimi, “We Became Trapped,” 19.
21 Shamel, “The Persian Epic Shahnama,” 211. In particular the story of Sohrab and Rostam from the Shahnameh is referred to, as Dastaguir often compares his situation with that of the character king Rostam, a great hero who unwittingly kills his son Sohrab in battle. For more on the significance of this story to Earth and Ashes, see Shamel, “Afghanistan and the Persian Epic Shahnama.”
22 Mills, “Gnomics,” 233. The truck driver Shahmard speaks of Mirza's past life as a Kabul shopkeeper and part-time storyteller who commanded much respect.
23 It is worth noting, however, that the novel was conceived of before these events took place and, as Olivier Roy points out: “it was quite impossible, before the [Soviet–Afghan] war, to define the ethnic groups as homogenous and symmetrical entities which could be conceived in political terms.” Roy, “Afghanistan: Back to Tribalism,” 73. The novel's action is also set before the outbreak of the civil war, which was fought largely along lines of ethnicity and, as such, more entrenched notions of ethnic division have become one of the legacies of this conflict. For more on this, see Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, 184–227.
24 Aspden, “Short and Bitter,” 26.
25 Rahimi, “Dialogue with Atiq Rahimi,” paragraph 6.
26 Rasley, Point of View, 112.
27 Dennis Schofield argues that it can be hasty to simply assume that “the “you” address perforce leads the reader into identification whether with the position of a “you” protagonist, the narrator, or the narratee/implied reader, just as it would be hasty to take its confronting address as always and inevitably alienating.” Schofield, “The Second Person,” 39.
28 Rahimi, “We Became Trapped,” 20.
29 See Rasley, Point of View, 115.
30 This theme of “asserting, positioning, and defining” an “ill-fitting” sense of self-identity is also prevalent in the work of many exiled Afghan poets working in Iran. Olszewska, “‘A Desolate Voice',” 205.
31 Rahimi, Earth and Ashes, 2.
32 Second person narration makes the question of who, exactly, can be said to narrate the action a very complex one. This is because, as Rahimi suggests, in “each context the narrator changes.” Rahimi, “Dialogue with Atiq Rahimi,” paragraph 8. So as to more clearly express my argument, the discussion will always refer to the narrator as Dastaguir, and to the perspective position as his own.
33 Rahimi, Earth and Ashes, 4.
34 Ibid., 2.
35 Ibid., 20.
36 Ibid., 8.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid. (emphasis added).
39 Ibid., 37.
40 Ibid., 37.
41 Ibid., 21.
42 Ibid., 6.
43 Ibid., 1.
44 Ibid., 3.
45 Vladislav, “Exile, Responsibility, Destiny,” 16.
46 Rahimi, Earth and Ashes, 25–6.
47 Ibid., 20.
48 In Afghanistan, particularly in rural societies, tribal codes or traditions often require Afghan men to forcefully defend and control women who are seen as repositories for their honor. As such, it is often considered “the absolute duty of men to protect the respectability of women.” Rostami-Povey, Afghan Women, 4. Importantly, the extent to which such customs are practiced depends upon “ethnic group, social class, and location.” Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, 24. Also, Elaheh Rostami-Povey remarks that, though “patriarchal attitudes and structures remain extremely strong in Afghanistan … , contrary to popular views in the West, many Afghan men oppose traditional ideologies of male superiority and dominance.” Rostami-Povey, Afghan Women, 5–6.
49 Rahimi, “Dialogue with Atiq Rahimi,” paragraph 12.
50 Rahimi, “Literary Currents Series,” paragraph 25.
51 The one exception to this is when Dastaguir sees a vision of his wife running ‘at the base of the hills.’ Rahimi, Earth and Ashes, 41.
52 Ibid., 5.
53 Ibid., 3.
54 Ibid., 32.
55 Ibid., 18.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid., 10.
58 Ibid., 40.
59 Ibid., 6–7.
60 Ibid., 42.
61 Ibid., 44.
62 Ibid., 41–2.
63 Ibid., 7.
64 Ibid., 40.
65 Ibid., 24.
66 Ibid., 40, 24.
67 Ibid., 44.
68 This foreman represents, in general, supporters of the Afghan communist regime who often strived to create such divides within families and communities. For more on this see, in particular, chapter five of Roy's Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan.
69 Rahimi, Earth and Ashes, 49.
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid., 51, 50.
72 Rahimi, “We Became Trapped,” 20.
73 Salvatori, “Italo Calvino's,” 196.
74 Hensher, “Cruel Duty,” 17.
75 Salvatori, “Italo Calvino's,” 196.
76 Rahimi, Earth and Ashes, 53 (emphasis added).
77 Ibid., 24.