The Emergence of the Salon-society Discourse and the Fiction of Ali Dashti

Ali Dashti (1894–1982) developed in his public identity a persona meant to be seen as exceptional—as ‘other.’ Nonetheless, he can be analyzed as a representative figure in Iranian intellectual society. This essay focuses on the social setting of his best known fiction—Fetneh (1943), Jadu (1951) and Hendu (1955)—the cultural phenomenon of the salon, familiar to English and French cultures from the 18th century onwards. The salon is the characteristic setting portrayed in his novels and the social experience in which he developed his taste.