LITERARY CRITICISM
Year:2010 | Volume:2 | Issue:8|Papers Count:12

Discussing “motif” as a prevailing term in art, literature, science, and technology, is a vital necessity in critical analysis and interpretation of the structure and the content of literary works. As a result, it is necessary to have a deep knowledge of its definition and variety of its meanings for literary studies. This article discusses “motif” as a literary term along with some other terms related to it. Motif is used in painting, visual and dramatic arts, and literature; and in all these branches, repetition and inciting nature are its most important characteristics. The meaning of “motif” in literature also is shaped based on the same characteristics. It should be noted that since in a work of art a variety of elements can serve the role of motif (for instance a situation, an event, a belief, an image, a typical personality, a particular characteristic of a character, a frequent theme and etc.), this term is essentially related to some other literary elements such as theme, topos, leitmotif and archetype. In this article after discussing the definition of motif and its relationship with other elements, we have explicated the formation process of motif and its functions and applications in literary works.

The discursive outlook, approached from a semio-semantics perspective, looks into language productions as a function of a set of complex processes in which many semio-semantic factors play an active role. The discursive presence is important because its dynamism leads us to a discursive orientation and fosters our relationships as well as the interaction between compatible and incompatible powers. What will help us to move from a structuralist system that is based on the signifier and the signified to a processional system? It seems that the processional system that is based on the relations between different layers of language (form and content) substitutes the relations between the signifier and the signified. What features will make the layers of language capable of expanding the borders of meaning and producing a semiotic process? In this article, besides answering these questions, we also intend to discuss those conditions which can lead us from a structural semiotics that is concerned with predetermined meanings to a processional semiotics in which meaning becomes an attribute of the dialogue and the conflict between different layers of language.

Eyn-ol Ghozat Hamedani is one of the prominent scholars and theosophists in the field of literary theory with lots of in-depth studies in this area. In his four excellent works, he has introduced fresh and unique ideas regarding the criticism and interpretation of the literary texts, among which one can point out: the relationship between expression and meaning; words’ connective and separative forms with respect to the meaning and content; the relation between poem and prose, and the mentality and the viewpoint of the reader; the impromptu writing especially in three stags including childhood, the state of wisdom, and the state of being in love. This study intends to analyze Eyn-ol Ghozat Hamedani’s works based on the frameworks proposed by him.

Dolatabadi is the most prolific author of the last two decades in Iran. Before writing novels and creating his great works such as Saluch's Absence and Kaleidar, Dolatabadi wrote long short stories, which shows his interest in writing novels. There have been only a few studies on his works and those available are mostly about the content of his stories and novels. This paper is a study of fourteen short stories by him with a particular attention to issues such as plot, point of view, characterization, and the type of beginnings and endings in them. A brief review of Dolatabadi's life and works before 1357 as well as some scholars' views of the narration and narratology in his works will precede the main discussion.

Nihilism in the beginning part of Boof-e koor and its similarity with Nietzsche’s nihilism is an issue that is explored by the writers of this paper. Despite the fact that Nietzsche’s influence is undeniable in Hedayat’s works, Hedayat’s nihilism is radically different from what Nietzsche has recognized as “active nihilism” and has specified in the deeds of Zarathustra. The distinction between the Narrator and Zarathustra can be investigated in the second part of Boof-e koor, which in fact introduces to us the practical nihilism of this book. This paper unearths the similarity and the distinction between Zarathustra and the Narrator of Boof-e koor and explores the “passive nihilism” especially in the second part of this book. We also believe that although the Narrator has reviewed Nietzsche’s argument in his mind, and apparently is approved of it, and, in the first part, thinks about killing the celestial girl, this girl's deep influence – that is in fact a realization of the extraterrestrial world – and the narrator's passion deter him from being able to practically obliterate influence of the prostitute’s presence from his life, that is the social symbol of the celestial girl.

The narratology, with a relatively vast domain, is the center of attention for many circles of literary criticism. Besides, the relation between narrative elements with other fictional elements has introduced various new perspectives in the field of literary criticism. The aim of this article is to explain and analyze several narrative techniques, and also to show some instances of these techniques in the Masnavi’s tales. The focus of this paper will be on four major concepts, namely narrative past, Material and mental process verbs, narrative proceeding and intercalated narration. In the part devoted to narrative past, the different functions of the tense of the verb in fictional and factual texts is explicated. In the next part, it is discussed that the reporting of the persons’ external verbs like eating wearing running and the like can occur in nonfictional texts; yet, explanation of the internal verbs like thinking, hoping, and etc., is possible only in fictional texts. In the third section of the paper, the linear narrative and interruption of linear narrative will be dealt with. Finally, in the last part of this paper, the concept of intercalated narration is explored. It should be noted that the intercalated narration involves tales in whom the narrative framework proceeds alternately between fictional acts and characters’ dialogues.

This study is an analysis of the narrative prose of Aviny in his narrative Ravāyate Moharram1 with regard to the features of narrative intelligence and the narratological features of his prose based on Randall’s (1999) framework for the Narrative Intelligence Theory. Although many claims have been made about the unique qualities of Aviny’s narratives, none of his works have been academically analyzed to show the narratological features in his prose. The researchers believe that scientific analysis of Aviny’s works based on reliable narratological theories can substantially contribute to a better understanding of the special qualities of his style, and using them in new forms and contexts. In the present study, narrative intelligence promoting mechanisms and their realization in Ravāyate Moharram are quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed using Labov’s (2001) narratological model as a structural instrument. The linguistic manifestation of some narratological features of Aviny’s prose are discussed from a stylistic perspective.