Gaining through Bereavement: A Comparative Study of the Literature of Bijan Najdi and Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Abstract

Throughout human history bereavement has always imposed its undeniable and inevitable impact on the life of those affected by it. Despite all discrepancies what can be considered the common ground in bereavement among all nations regardless of cultural, ideological, religious and ethical values is the fact that bereavement infuses an indispensable change into the lives of those encountering it. The comparative study of Burial and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Iranian and Colombian authors, respectively, points out the unconventional reversed handling of bereavement which results in obtaining insight into the human capacity to mature. Both authors make their characters inseminate their barren lives with grief to produce a change which is drastic and flourishing in Gabriel Garcia Marquez and soothing and stabilizing in Bijan Najdi. Through the course of the stories the childless couple in Najdi and the villagers in Garcia Marquez are gradually exposed to the truth of their lives ironically by the corpses coming up their ways quite unexpectedly and learn to develop new identities, attaching themselves to and possessing the bodies. This comparative study sheds light on how the revelation they experience inculcates a joyful, fluid mobility in the villagers and stability in the couple’s life. The study of these texts reveals the absolute notion that the actual change originates from the world within and what lies in the world without is dead.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2017.v8n1p478