Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 19، number In Volume 6، September 2026 ، issue Number 124

A Critique and Analysis of the Novel "This Dog Wants to Eat Roxana" Based on Postmodern Components

Masoumeh Hassanpour Kahnemoui , Kamran Pashaei Fakhri (Author in Charge), Parvaneh Adelzadeh

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The developments of the modern era have changed the foundations of human thinking in political, social and cultural issues. The postmodernist movement in the twentieth century, as the last major intellectual movement in the West, cast doubt and pessimism on the values of the modern era. This intellectual movement inevitably penetrated the culture and art of other countries, and the postmodern novel, imitating Western fiction, became one of the currents of contemporary Iranian novel writing. The postmodern narrative has special characteristics that are the result of today"s chaotic and insecure world. One of the works that has the potential for postmodernist reading is the novel "This Dog Wants to Eat Roxana" by Qasem Kashkuli.

METHODOLOGY: The present study is a theoretical study that has attempted to criticize and analyze the novel in question based on postmodernist components using a library research method and a descriptive-analytical method. The population studied is the novel This Dog Wants to Eat Roxana by Qasem Kashkuli, published by Butimar Publishing.

FINDINGS: characteristic features of the postmodern style, such as uncertainty, the collapse of macro-narratives, temporal chaos, polyphonic carnival, short circuit, Gothic, lack of cause-and-effect relationships, paranoia, intertextuality, identity and unity of characters, collage, indefinite ending, and the dominance of the ontological element, have been used in the novel in question.

CONCLUSION: The conclusion from the research results is that the characteristics of the postmodernist style, both structural and content, are clearly evident in the narrative type, and uncertainty and the dominance of the ontological element are the most important postmodernist elements of this novel.

Keyword
Fiction , Postmodern Narrative , Ghasem Kashkooli , This Dog Wants to Eat Roxana