Journal of Poetry Studies (Boostan Adab)
Year:2010 | Volume:1 | Issue:2 (56/1)|Papers Count:10

In Iran the history of studying the different Persian literary styles begins with Sabkshenasi [stylistics], written by Malek Al-Shoara Bahar. Though by now a lot of books and essays are written, the methodology and structure of the same book still dominates the domain. Almost all of these researches have focused more on the literary and linguistics features of literary works or periods but the most theoretical aspects of the problem are ignored. This evident lack of a theoretical thought and discussion about the style elements is a great obstruction in discovering an appropriate methodology for studying the problem of style in Persian literary works. As one of the first steps to fill these gaps, the present paper tries to demonstrate the great role the concept of “choice” can play. First it is argued how the concept of “choice” and “choice threshold” can be defined and how it can enrich the theoretical aspect of the study of Persian literary style. Then the levels of “choice” and “choice threshold” in a literary work are studied. Finally the possible applicable uses of such a theoretical study in Persian literature are demonstrated. It is concluded that the concept of choice threshold can be applied sufficiently to study more precisely the literary and stylistic changes.

Shaykh Mahmud Shabestari's Golshan-e Raz is one of the most important Persian mystical works. This book contains about one thousand mystical couplets which deal with important theoretical mystical issues. Among the many commentaries which have beenwritten on Golshan-e Raz, Sharh-e Hadiqat al-Marif written by Shoja al-Din Korbali enjoys a special place. Korbali dedicated his book to Abol Mozaffar Jahan Shah Qaraquyunlu, the learned king of the ninth century. This book is one of the best commentaries of Golshan-e Razand the writer has covered all aspects. It may not be superior to Lahiji's commentary but historically precedes it.

Among the many epics written after Shahnameh, Borzunameh enjoys more popularity with the public in Iran. With its uncomplicated plot, simple language, and entertaining story it has been intertwined with the peoples' life and seeped into the memory of people like other popular stories such as Amir Arsalan-e Namdar and Hussein Kord-e Shabestari. The popularity of Borzunameh in different parts of Iran over the years has caused the first version to undergo changes and different oral versions have appeared which are sometimes very different from each other. In this paper an oral version which ispopular in Kohmareh Sorkhi is introduced? The differences and similarities of this version with the written version are discussed

Formalism, as an approach in literary criticism, was introduced in the early twentieth century under the influence of Italian futurism and the contribution of young Russian linguists. Later on, it was spread in Europe and America and gradually found advocates in almost all countries of the world. Iranian literary critics and scholars also embraced this new literary school and incorporated a formalistic approach in their literary criticism.Among modern Iranian literary critics, Shafe’ee Kadkani was the strongest advocate of this new critical trend and adopted a formalistic approach as well as a linguistic approach in his writings. He has tried to discover the secret of literariness of a work of art and illustrate aspects of defamiliarization of discourse from people’s everyday language in the literary works of the earlier and modern scholars. He believes, in line with formalists, that “poetry is an event that occurs only in language” and asserts that linguistics tries to find out “the miracle of words” and show the underlying reasons and causes of the beauty of literary discourse. In his view, literature is a type of language use which departs from everyday language through deviations from the “practical language” and deconstructing language norms. The effects of formalism on Shafe’ee’s works could bediscerned in his poems to a great extent.

Modern critical approaches are not frequently applied to Persian texts, while these texts can present a great opportunity to analyze theories and find new ways to comment upon literary language. Charles Sanders Peirce who is considered as one of the founders of semiology has divided signs into three classes: iconic, symbolic and indexical. Molavi's poetry has such great depth of meaning that many approaches can be applied to it. Applying Peirce's theories to Molavi'spoetry not only helps with the analysis of Molavi's idea but can also be of help in understanding the application of the theory and how it works.

Three questions have occupied my mind and many others no doubt-- for some time and this paper tries to answer these three questions. The first question is about the identity of the person who divided Sa'di's ghazals into four parts of Tayyebat, Badaye', Khavatimand Ghadim. The second question is about the reasons for this division and my last question concerns those weak and problematic ghazals which have not been excluded.

In this article, after a brief review of the term 'tolerance' and its history in the West and the Islamic culture, regarding the interrelationships and the effects of political, historical, and social issues on the artist's mind, a brief account is provided of the Hafiz's political, historical and social era. An attempt is made to scrutinize Hafiz's viewpoint of tolerance from three different perspectives. The first is Hafiz's viewpoint about sin. In this section, sin is viewed as destined by God, Adam and Eve's first sin, the act of God's forgiving sin out of compassion which is the manifestation of God's grace, the insignificance of debauchery in the world, the uncertainty of man's destiny and his actions. In the second section, such subjects as Hafiz's tolerance, seizing the moment to commit sin, tendency to seek pleasure, and drinking as a sin-cleansing factor are discussed. In the third section, Hafiz's view of individual and social life and the provision of a behavioral pattern based on cooperation and tolerance will be investigated. This pattern is based on the compromise with enemies, condemning arrogance, acquisition of wealth and wrongdoing, promoting generosity, compassion and the unity of religions.

Sa'di's use of Qur'anic Verses and Traditions in Golestan's dialogues is different from his contemporaries. In Sa'di's prose, writing anecdotes has a special place and has made Golestan into a prose text with different characteristics of fiction. Dialogues are also used to make the dramatic aspect of Hekayat or stories in Golestan. Thus it is the best place to bring in Verses and Traditions to make them blend naturally within the text. Qur'anic dialogues are uttered in different way through the characters and sometimes through the narrator; so they can be divided into three categories. This study shows that the narrator uses these dialogues more than the other characters.