بازنمایی توسعه در رمان «ره‎ش»

Many Iranian novelists, considering the current conditions and intellectual tendencies of society, have paid attention to the themes related to tradition and modernity and in their works, have reflected the reaction to their consequences from various aaspects. Reza Amirkhani is one of the post-revolutionary writers who has reflected "the duality of tradition and modernity" in the themes of all his stories. He illustrates the Iranian specific experiences in a symbolic way, and also represents the compatibility and incompatibility of different intellectual spectrums in the form of characters. In his novel "Rahesh", Amirkhani deals with the subject of urban development from the perspective of the struggle between tradition and modern and technocratic attitudes, and presents it as a subject for ideologies and discoursest; thus, development in this paper is a symbol of modernism and modernization. This study addresses the issue of how the pattern of development as a concept, in the conflict between traditional attitudes and technology, is represented in the novel "Rahsh". There are some researches on the novel "Rahsh" with different methods and perspectives, among which we can refer to the article by Mostafa Gorji entitled "Study and analysis of the novel" Rahsh "according to The view of Alain Dubatten (position anxiety) "(1399), in which, particularly, the situation and abnormal situation of modern man has been studied.

The article "Sociological Critique of Reza Amirkhani's Novel Based on Goldman's Theory of Constructivism" (2016) by Arezoo Pourizdan Panah Kermani also examined literary and sociological aspects of the work based on Lucien Goldman's Constructivist theory, and described the novel as a social critique of the nowadays development of Tehran and concluded that the novel reflects a true picture of the state of society.

another article entitled "Sociological analysis of Reza Amirkhani's novel" Raesh "based on the theory of reflection of reality" (1399) by Alireza Shohani and Davood Soleimani Moghaddam discussed that according to George Luca's theory of "reflection of reality", this work examines the reflection of social realities resulting from unbalanced urban development. The article with a empathetic look, confirms Amirkhani's attitude and described the cultural, social, economic and political dilemmas, caused by urbanization and new architecture in Tehran. In another article entitled "Pathology and Critique of Urbanism and New Urban Architecture from the Perspective of the Author of the Novel" Resh "(1399), these authors have dealt with the same issues raised in the first article with more detailed titles which some of its titles, such as "Political Criticism in Humorous Language," are repeated exactly in this article; conclusion of  the work also overlaps with the result of the previous article and describes and confirms the harms of urbanization from the novel's point of view.

Given the research background, the novelty of the present article is that it has looked at the development model from both the hardware and software dimensions of modernity, and examined it according to the conflict between the two discourses of traditionalism and technocracy; also, based on the text, criticized Amirkhani's view and discussed that illustration and characterization, and the way of representing the discourses in the story contains internal contradictions. The article is different with other works in the method, theoretical framework and type of analysis.

Reza Amirkhani criticizes the unbalanced urban development in his novel Rahesh". He considers the imbalance and cultural and social problems of the city as a result of technocratic development, hence, the novel was evaluated on the basis of the Frankfurt School of Criticism. By illustrating the dominance of the technocratic view of urban order and addressing some of the cultural and environmental damage, Amirkhani approaches the Frankfurters' view of systemic domination of the world's environment. The novel depicts in terms of content, contradictory characterization and controversial dialogues, the inconsistencies of traditional discourses and technocratic development in a particular example of urban development. The main characters of the story are personified in line with the conflict between these two discourses; the discourse of tradition is defined in line with female identity and dimensions such as domination, dependence, daily life, limitations, attention to cultural and artistic subtleties, and emotional and nostalgic approach to past traditions. The discourse of technocracy and technocratic development has been conceptualized in line with masculine identity and the aspects of authoritarianism, carelessness, disregard for old concerns, supporter of modernity, linear and one-dimensional development, and utilitarian thinking. In this discourse, priority is given to the system and the social biosphere is subject to modernization, technological and material achievement. By characterizing Ala, Amirkhani tries to show the components of power-seeking, capitalism and utilitarianism in the eyes of technology, and through it, critique them for ignoring cultural aspects and their one-sided view of technocratic development; while the cultural aspect of the story is mostly defined by traditional aspects and old customs; the Frankfurters regard the technocrats' view of the dominance of the hardware aspect of modernity over all aspects of its software.

Addressing the theme of urban development in the form of a novel is unprecedented and the representation of different approaches to this issue is one of the strengths of the novel, because different attitudes towards the development model is, not only in a specific example of urban development, but also in the discussion of the development of the country, a point of conflict.

The most important criticism of development programs in Iran and the way the novel represented it, is that different traditional attitudes, technocracy and... in developing policies and implementing development programs have shifted towards idealism instead of deep and realistic understanding of issues. These attitudes, ignoring the damages, continue to persist on both opposite sides and progress in parallel lines. Amirkhani's criticisms tend to the performance of technocrats in a particular period of municipal management; while these issues in the larger view, are struggling to conceptualize development in Iran.

The novel reflects the traditional discourse more rationally and justifiably; on the contrary, it shows the power relations and the performance of the technocrat spectrum more effectively in the unbalanced development of the city and the destruction of the environment. The wandering narrative of the story has taken indicators from each approach and combined them; for this reason, none of the characterizations can be considered a representative of the whole tradition and technocratic development or a symbol of the hardware and software aspect of modern development.