Journal of Literary Criticism and Rhetoric

Journal of Literary Criticism and Rhetoric

From the Dream of Equality to the Reproduction of Violence: A Sociological Analysis of the Novel Notes of a Dictatorof a Dictator

Document Type : scientific-research

Authors
Hesam Khaloei 1
MohammadSadegh Basiri 2
Najmeh Hosseini Sarvari 3
1 Department of Persian Language and Literature, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran
2 Full Professor Department of Persian Language and Literature, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran
3 Associate Professor Department of Persian Language and Literature, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran
10.22059/jlcr.2025.399312.2070
Abstract
With a critical and sociological approach, this article offers an in-depth examination of Notes of a Dictator, a novel by Hedayatollah Hakim-Elahi. It analyzes the intricate trajectory of the protagonist’s transformation—from a marginalized citizen who appears to champion justice, into an ideological and totalitarian dictator. The study seeks to reveal how social, psychological, and class-based contexts pave the way for this tragic metamorphosis, and how hidden forces of power and ideology gradually turn a social actor—initially committed to liberation and justice—into a reproducer of the very violence he once sought to resist.
This analysis rests on a multilayered theoretical framework. First, the principles of Critical Marxism, with emphasis on class conflict and alienation, illuminate the economic and social foundations of the protagonist’s downfall. Second, the sociology of literature—drawing on the insights of Lucien Goldmann and Georg Lukács—interprets the novel as a reflection and representation of the material and class structures of society. Third, Michel Foucault’s concepts of power provide the tools to identify the subtle, microscopic mechanisms of domination and the production of ideological “truth” within the narrative.




The findings demonstrate that the novel’s dominant socialist discourse, in the absence of regulatory institutions and participatory mechanisms, gradually loses its emancipatory meaning. In its entanglement with pathological structures of power, it becomes an instrument for legitimizing violence, suppression, and the reproduction of inequality. The protagonist—initially a symbol of the fervor for justice and the ideal of equality—through the workings of ideological mechanisms, as theorized by Louis Althusser, becomes ensnared in reproducing social and mental misrecognition. Ultimately, he emerges not as a liberator, but as an instrument of the ruling class’s domination.
Keywords
Character transformation
Ideological violence
Totalitarianism
Critical discourse analysis.Sociology of literature
Class conflict
Power
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  • Receive Date 24 July 2025
  • Revise Date 24 August 2025
  • Accept Date 27 August 2025