Literary modernity in Iran is traditionally believed to have two alternative “advents.” One such moment is attributed to Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh’s (1892-1997) preface to Yaki Bud u Yaki Nabud (Once Upon a Time) published in 1921. The other moment is ascribed to the publication by Sadeq Hedayat (1902-1951) of Buf-i Kur (The Blind Owl) in 1936. Both are held to be determining moments at which a decisive break with what is perceived as traditional modes of writing was effected. In the former case, Jamalzadeh’s prescription to set the traditional genre of “composition on the path of novel” (16) was seen as a manifesto of literary modernity. In the latter case, Hedayat’s use of surrealist narration in The Blind Owl and the novel’s explorations of individual psyche were seen as a departure from the traditional “Hekayat” (tale) and its moralist-realist persuasion. Both are, as I argue in this inquiry, historicist approaches to modernity premised on temporal hierarchy, condemning the literary modernities of non-Europe as either temporally lagging or aesthetically derivative. A genealogical approach will instead focus on adaptations of modernity. Literary modernity in Iran, I argue, is a contested process. And as an extension of its socio-cultural context, literature becomes a site for the contending narratives of “traditional” and “modernity.” As complex and contradictory as these categories are, their deployment has often been simplistic and binarsitic. Their embodiments in the Iranian novels of the period under study, however, is often overlapping and ambiguous. The two figures that incorporate these perceived polarities are those of Jahil and Fokoli. The former was held to stand for tradition while the latter was seen to represent the modern. These archetypal figures reemerge time and again in Iranian novels and their continuous disciplining and counter disciplining characterizes the narrative of Iranian identity formation, the nation, and the meaning and locus of the subject within the latter’s imagined borders. Taking my cue from the traditional temporalizations of literary modernity mentioned above, I study the generations that follow Jamalzadeh and Hedayat, stretching roughly the period between the 1920’s to the 1940’s. Due to the sheer volume of literary productions in the specified time span, only representative works have been selected for this study. By “representative” is simply meant those works that enjoyed more popularity, were more often anthologized, or appeared in more editions or “serious” studies.