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Origin of Narrating in Iraq-Iran War-1
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The essay about Gol-ali Babaei’s lecture on the subject of war narrating and the related comments delivered referring to it, is more than anything else about redefining the concept of narrator. What can be meant by narrator, narration and narrating? It is supposed that concepts have their own functions and are formed, polished and changed for that end. In present text, the origin and conceptual functions of narrating are defined in last three decades. This essay is not to confiscate the concept of “narrator-narration” or to bind it to a special organ or organization, but it is to help to reach a better understanding of it.
One should consider the agitations resulted from the expansion of narrator–narration concept, since this concept can be applied to a vast part of the present measures of individuals and research centers and also different attitudinal and methodical types, but this does not mean it covers all of them and fulfill the present and future needs anyway.
Exploring the origin of narrating and its developments is subjected to this presumption that, to fulfill the present needs, concepts and their functions cannot be reviewed apart from the realm in which they have been born, grown and evolved. In this case a wrong picture of narrator is uselessly disputed, without being cleared out what was the main question. One cannot also limit the concept of narrator to its new meaning; war-reminiscence in sessions called memory nights, and then dispute about it.
Therefore, through finding out the conditions in which narrating has been formed as a style of thinking and method of discussing the war, the questions and disagreements can be re-thought and discussed in a transparent and clear space. If not, the anxiety about different interpretations from war narrating transforming into the main subject and replacing the war narration through different methods remains and would result in polarity and division. Undoubtedly the main question in war literature and historiography is “war-narrating”, not instances of war-narrating and narrators.
1. All those who started recording and collecting the history and incidents of war since 1981 in Political Office of Islamic Revolution Guards, began their work by interviewing with the war eyewitnesses and participants, which resulted in 700 audio cassettes archived in Holy Defense Center of Documents and Investigations. The book “Khorramshahr in the Long War”, about resistance in city of Khorramshahr, is completed and written upon parts of these interviews. My presence in war headquarters since 1981 to the conclusion of war, resulted in recording and documenting all procedures of designing and commanding the operations. The book “Two Years of War” was the first written work about military-political events and war cultural-doctrinal believes, published in the summer of 1982, in 100.000 copies and translated to English, Arabic and Urdu.
While printing the research indices in 1983, this question was aroused that what we should call our work. Before that we were called the personnel of the Political Office, referring to the place we were dispatched from. After some debates the title narrator was proposed and printed on the research indices. This led to a self-awareness and self-belief in recording and documenting the war history, which would itself lead to the prevention of war misreport. In addition the department of publications of Islamic Revolution Guards gathered the combatants’ memories in war and warfronts and published some of them.
2. End of war rendered an opportunity to quote the memories of war eyewitnesses and participants. 250 sessions of war-reminiscence have been held by now. Valuable works have been published which have been welcomed by the public. In this way, endeavors of individuals like Sarhangi, Behboodi, Kamari and many others were distinguished.
3. Possibility of public visit of war zones, which started during the war, necessitated the presence of some individuals to explain the war incidents and operations. Those accepted this duty were called narrators, from whom some had the experience of participating in war fronts and some others were younger individuals who narrated war upon what they had heard or read. In this phase, the necessity of getting familiar with war scenes resulted in forming new cultural structures and concepts in which narrators played a key role.
Mohammad Doroodian
Translated By: AsgharAboutorabi
Source: Mohammad Doroodian Official Website
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