Epic and National Self-Consciousness: the Case of Shahnameh

This paper aims to explore the relationship between epic poetry and national self-consciousness and in particular study how shahnameh may be analyzed from this angle. what is the relationship between the shahnameh and the iranian national self-consciousness? what can one say about the iranian national self-consciousness on the basis of this text? what does the text reveal about the iranian identity? a related question should also be answered, is the shahnameh an epic? this is not a pedantic question concerned merely with definitions and labels. as will become clear, an epic reveals a great deal about the national consciousness of the people to whom it belongs (or who belong to it); to identify a poem as an epic, is to be making an important statement about the national consciousness of a people. the question of whether the shahnameh is an epic or not is hence far from a pedantic one. it takes us right into the heart of iranian national consciousness.