An Analysis of the Main Elements of Grotesque in the Novel Scorched Earth by Ahmed Mahmoud

Keshavarz Qadimi, Ali; Mlki, Mostafa

doi:10.22034/pmlj.2026.15225.1110

An Analysis of the Main Elements of Grotesque in the Novel Scorched Earth by Ahmed Mahmoud

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

ali keshavarz qadimi ¹

mostafa mlki ²

¹ National Public Libraries Institution, General Directorate of Public Libraries of Qazvin Province, Qazvin, Iran.

² Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Mahallat Branch, Markazi Province, Mahallat, Iran.

10.22034/pmlj.2026.15225.1110

Abstract

By creating a modern form and technique in the novel Scorched Earth, Ahmad Mahmoud seeks a kind of deconstruction and tradition-breaking in contemporary fiction. With this perspective, in the novel Scorched Earth, Ahmad Mahmoud searches for, recognizes, and introduces the Iran-Iraq War in the depths and hidden layers of society by utilizing the grotesque method, which opens the eyes of his audience to new facts that had been forgotten or less addressed from that perspective. In this article, the authors examine one of the modern techniques of this story using a descriptive-analytical method and have reached the conclusion that Ahmad Mahmoud's novel Scorched Earth has been able to demonstrate the author's mastery and mastery of this technique and clearly shows readers that environmental changes, physical deterioration, spatial grotesque, the confrontation of the ridiculous and the horrific, social crisis, and grotesque in a universal psychological form by utilizing this genre depict the real events of the war.

Keywords

Modernism

Persian story

Ahmad Mahmoud

Scorched Earth

Grotesque

Subjects