LITERARY CRITICISM
Year:2013 | Volume:6 | Issue:23|Papers Count:11

In historical and literary studies, periodization is a regulative idea for classifying the literary and historical information on diachronic axis.This has been the subject of some criticism in the literary studies.This article studies the critical debates about periodization in literary history and the rethinking of the concept. We can divide these critical debates into two groups: (1) some critics call the very notion of periodization into question; and (2) others engage in rethinking and revising the concept for appropriate application in literary history.Imposition of a static framework on cultural and literary dynamics, homogenizing effect which stands in contrast with the uniqueness of literary works, mixing the histories of different literary genres, lack of conformity with reality, artificial homogeneity of the schemas of change and evolution, problems of terminology, anachronism, overlooking years and even centuries, disregarding the distance between literary production and literary reading, ignoring ethnic and gender groups, and dominance of periodization framework over critical thought are some of the problems of the current approach to periodization in literary history. Rethinking periodization should be based on new historical and literary approaches such as feminism or ethnic minorities’ studies.

The problem of how to choose a text for a particular literary study has usually been neglected in the discussions of literary methodologies.However, a systematic study of this problem can drastically enhance the final results of literary studies. This article evaluates the importance of selecting the text as a methodological problem. It seems that attention to the text-selection procedure as a methodological problem is in correlation with the researcher’s awareness of the relationship between the selected text and other texts. This view emphasizes on the function of the text and the implications of its selection procedure in the final results of the research projects.

Cognitive metaphor theory claims that in conceptualization of different concepts, ordinary and poetic languages have some commonalities and differences. This paper studies Hafez’s creativity in conceptualization of “love.” In Hafez’s poetry, “love” is conceptualized by different, though interrelated, conceptual mechanisms of metaphor, image, personification, and metonymy. It seems that Hafez has used even more creative mechanisms in the conceptualization of love. To find some of these distinguishing factors, two important questions are raised: (1) what is the difference between common metaphors of “love” in Persian and those created in Hafez’s poetry; and (2) among the four mechanisms proposed by Kovecses (2010), which one is more influential in artistic creativity and novelty of Hafez’s poetry? Close analysis of poems that draw on the concept of “love” shows that the language or Hafez contains the same kind of conceptualization as ordinary Persian language. In other words, “love” has been conceptualized as “fire,” “journey,” “rapture,” etc. However, its conceptualization is different from ordinary language, because the poet has creatively used four poetic mechanisms of extension, elaboration, questioning, and combining which are less frequent in ordinary language. It seems that, as it is predicted by cognitive linguistics, what distinguishes literary language from ordinary language is creative usage of metaphorical conceptualizations, personification, image metaphors, and conceptual metonymies. Furthermore, among four distinguishing mechanisms, combining and elaboration seem to be the most effective and questioning is the least effective factor in poetic conceptualization of “love.” Moreover, Hafez has used many creative, novel conceptual metaphors of “love” along with conventional ones.

This article looks at the question of gender representation in the novel Raz-haye Sarzamin-e Man (The Mysteries of My Land) using critical discourse analysis and Simone de Beauvoir’s notion of gender. My study shows that portraying female characters in this novel has two significant aspects: first, the transformation of the binary opposition of Innocent Girl/Prostitute (Athiry/Lakkateh) that has especially been highlighted in Hedayat’s works, into Revolutionary Mother/ Royal Prostitute in this novel; and second, the emphasis placed on the political role of women in the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the portrayal of these women as powerful, visionary, and open-minded characters. Here, the hidden ideology of the text has changed the problem of women and dominant assumptions about them into a political and class-related one and thus has affected the writer’s concept of the history. Furthermore, the metaphor of the homeland as mother has shaded the text in the form of a mythical thought.

The subject of metaphorical creativity was studied by Lakoff and Turner in their More Than Cool Reason (1989). Lakoff and Turner make two very important claims. One is that poets share with everyday people most of the conceptual metaphors they use in poetry and, second, metaphorical creativity in poetry is the result of four common conceptual devices that poets use in manipulating shared conceptual metaphors: elaboration, extension, questioning, and combining. The main purpose of this paper is to introduce these devices and study their applicability to the cognitive analysis of a particular corpus of poetic metaphors derived from some body-part metaphors used in Sa’di’s Bustan. It appears that Sa’di shares with common people most of the conceptual metaphors he uses in Bustan.Thus, metaphorical creativity can be the result of the aforementioned devices that this poet uses to manipulate shared metaphors. The analysis shows that Sa’di made the most of the composing device and the least of questioning with elaborating and extending occupying a middle position.

Among the theories of cognitive linguistics, “conceptual metaphor” and “image schema” are of great importance. Image schemas are functions of cognitive processes which are formed because of the physical experience of human contact with the external world and provide the possibility for understanding and analysis of abstract concepts. Image schema has different species, for instance: containment schemas, path schemas, and force schemas. Cycle schema is one of the kinds of image schemas which can be formed by natural or conventional mapping. Concepts of cycle schemas in the poems of Sa’di can be placed into three categories: (1) request; (2) complaint; and (3) desertion. And the abstract concepts of cycle schemas in the poems of Hafez can be placed into following categories: (1) request; (2) complaint; and (3) submission. Some of the conclusions drawn from cognitive analyses obtained from the cycle schemas of these poets are: (1) Sa’di’s understanding of time movement is linear, while Hafez’s understanding is circular; (2) Sa’di’s linear understanding account for his tendency towards“realism,” while Hafez’s circular understanding indicates his predilection for “idealism;” and (3) Sa’di’s linear mentality places him in the tragic category of human beings while Hafez’s circular mentality places him in the epic category; and, finally, (4) the diction and the structure of the poems indicate a centrifugal tendency in Sa’di and a centripetal force in Hafez’s works.

Hedayat studied extensively the historical geography of various parts of Iran. These studies are especially reflected in Boof-e Koor, his most important novella. The subject of this study is the similarity between the historical city, Ray-between the third and seven centuries AH-and the city described in this work. Our studies confirm the accuracy of Hedayat’s scholarship in this novella. Despite its notorious complexity, Boof-e Koor contains elements of the real world-elements that are inspired by some aspects of the seventh century Ray. In this paper, the described space of Ray is analyzed based on five main criteria: (1) the structure of the city; (2) the civic characteristics of the city; (3) its economic status; (4) topographical features; and (5) its socio-cultural aspects.