ABSTRACT
One of the prevailing themes in Sadeq Hedayat’s works is the dead and the presence of ghosts among the living. Various studies have investigated the concept of thanatopsis (thinking about death) in Hedayat and his works; however, the origin of Hedayat’s tendency to thematize the spirits of the dead has received less attention from researchers, and no research thus far has addressed this issue in detail. Therefore, this chapter seeksto trace the origin of this pervasive tendency in Hedayat’s works by examining Hedayat’s fiction and discussing those instances in which Hedayat refers to the presence of ghosts in the living world and describes their relationship with the living. The main research question of this study is as follows: What factors could have possibly prompted Sadeq Hedayat to pay so much attention to ghosts in his works? To this end, the life and works of Sadeq Hedayat are re-examined and three major factors identified as responsible for his heightened attention to ghosts: (1) Hedayat’s studies and travels, (2) the socio-cultural context of his time, and (3) his personal temperament. Each of these three factors could have shaped part of Hedayat’s tendency to thematize the spirits of the dead in his fiction.
