mahboobeh Mirzadeh nodeh - Lecturer, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Gonabad, Gonabad, Iran

The present research analyzes "art" and "artist" in Monji dar Sonhi Namnaak (The Savior in a Damp Morning (Hereafter cited as Savior)) by Akbar Raadi, a contemporary Iranian dramatist in the light of Hegelian "master-slave dialectic." It aims to deal with the subjects of artistic creation and freedom of imagination as well as the artist's need for living in the master-ruled society. The play, studied through the process of research writing, portrays the totalitarian government, collective submission, and the artists' contribution and responsibility in such circumstances. And demonstrates the artists as a slave who is obliged to take the order of the masters of the time for art. Not having obtained the consciousness required for properly reacting social and artistic needs in relation to the masters, the artists stand against the masters' wills first but gradually, they realize their conditions in such slavery society. Since the history of nations differs based on the period in which the slaves struggle against masters and since the play belongs to particular historical epochs, the slave artist is expected to behave differently in confrontation with the authorities of the time - Raadi writes in an era when Iran was undertaking "modernity," when the artist generally was playing the role of a "savior." Therefore, Raadi's artist cannot tolerate the pressure upon the artists by the masters. He commits suicide and becomes the savior on the threshold of revolution by leaving his work which expresses the spirit of the time.

Hegel, Raadi, master-slave dialectic, art, artist, consciousness.