This House Has a Soul, You Must Wake It Up

In recent decades, Iranian women novelists have created narratives with a new perspective on the surrounding world, which not only echo the individual and collective experiences of women but also present new horizons of culture and society. These narratives establish a clear connection between women’s lived experiences and their environment, a connection that forms the fundamental structure of the concept of chronotope. The chronotope, the link between time and space within a narrative, intertwines the story and its socio-cultural worldview. This study, inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin’s thought, proposes the novel concept of the ‘house chronotope’ as a key to understanding these works. The author, using an analytical approach, examines Iranian women’s novels to understand why and how the ‘house chronotope’ is formed in these texts; whether it is a safe or restrictive space, open or closed; and whether a comprehensive pattern can be derived from it. The outcome of this exploration offers not only a fresh understanding of narrative literature but also the creation of a conceptual framework for reading future narratives.