LITERARY CRITICISM
Year:2015 | Volume:8 | Issue:31|Papers Count:7

Inspired by de Saussure and Hjelmslev and following a structural methodology, Yuri Lotman puts forward a framework for analyzing the structure of the artistic text. Defining art as the system of systems, Lotman points out that any artistic text is a secondary modelling system based on the primary model of language. However, artistic texts, compared to natural language, convey more complex information in a smaller amount of space and consequently have a more complex structure. This article follows Lotman’s theoretical framework and at the same time analyzes his argumentation. I argue that in artistic texts all different forms have the potentiality of becoming semanticized, i.e. entering into a higher level of signification. Accordingly, in artistic texts more than one system is active at a time; as a result, the tension between these systems leads to the reinforcement and intensification of the text’s significance. In the end, I introduce a new point in the field of poetic semiotics, namely, semantic ordering or the play of signifieds.

Some scholars in the field of semiotics believe that the semiotic square of Greimas, in certain texts, has a mechanical and solid structure and does not successfully represent meaning in a discourse. They believe that the tensive model is a more appropriate approach since it has fluid and dynamic applications. However, fluid and dynamic deep structure of narrative can be illustrated through “consecutive semiotic square;” in other words, it can be shown through the processes of the meaning production in a narrative from the primary meaning to the ultimate meaning. This study proposes a new model, namely, “semiotic ladder” to analyze narratives in the lyrical genre, to discover their inner and deep structure meanings, and to prove the dynamic characteristic of meaning in the semiotic square. We argue that the process of the semiotic ladder, thanks to consecutive semiotic squares, represents the displacement and fluidity of meanings in narratives and reject the mechanical and solid feature of squares. This model is applicable to all narrative forms.

In modern and postmodern Persian poetry, manifesto as a genre—translated in Persian as bayaniye-refers to three types of texts. The first is texts that are published under Persian titles such as manifest, manifesto, bayaniye and etc. in which literary and artistic views are expressed. The manifesto to Shahin’s literal movement, Espacementalisme, and bayaniye of Khorus Jangi are examples of this type. There are also texts not published under any of these titles and yet because of their content are recognized as manifestos. The introduction to Raha (a poetry book by Freydun Tavallali) and Khatab be Pavaneha by Reza Barahani are two examples. Lastly, a poem or a poetry collection due to its content or form may be recognized as manifesto for a movement. For example, the literary critics consider Nima Yushij’s Afsaneh as the manifesto to modern Persian poetry. In this essay, after an analysis of the etymology of the word manifesto, I discuss seven different features for manifestos in modern Persian poetry.

It has been a few decades since the first contemporary studies about metaphor. Conceptual metaphor has a special position within different literary theories, which are constantly incorporating new perspectives into metaphor research in conjunction with the other fields of study. Based on the theory of cognitive metaphor, metaphors exist everywhere and essentially it is the metaphorical structures that affect the people’s understanding. Therefore, we encounter different questions, which include, “what’s the nature of the addressee’s relations with metaphor?”, “can metaphor be effective in persuading the people to accept or reject a certain imposed attitude?”, “which variables can increase or decrease the persuasive impact of metaphor, and what should be the features of each of these variables?” To answer these questions, this study capitalizes on the previous literature as the theoretical backing of its model and presents the persuasive metaphor model based on Hovland’s persuasion model, exploring its variable characteristics. Therefore, inspired by the four variables of McGuire, Wood, and Eagly, we have proposed five variables and investigated the theoretical features of each of them in line with the characteristics of metaphorical relationship for the persuasive communications of metaphor.

Literary cognitivism, as I understand it, comprises two theses: (1) some literary works can convey non-trivial knowledge to readers and (2) the cognitive value of a literary work is part and parcel of its aesthetic value. In this paper, I argue for the first thesis and elaborate upon the various mechanisms by means of which literary works produce propositional and non-propositional knowledge (including perspective-based knowledge, empathic or phenomenal knowledge and ability knowledge or know-how). To do so, I give a brief sketch of Plato’s anti-cognitivist epistemological objections against the epistemic status of literary works and go on to reformulate them from a modern perspective to provide a background for my epistemological inquiry. My defence of literary cognitivism welcomes different kinds of knowledge-forming mechanisms but pace thinkers such as Noam Chomsky and Martha Nussbaum who prefer the literary discourse over the philosophical or scientific discourse in that the former might sometimes provide us with a kind of knowledge that we may not find in the latter. My defence cautiously and deliberately averts from making such dubious claims.

Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s novel Missing Solouch is one of the prominent works of contemporary Persian literature in which the consequences of colonial rule at the time of narration are clearly reflected in the narrative mechanisms of the novel. Influenced by the social context outside the text, the social and economic aspects of colonialism, whose burden is on the shoulders of marginal classes of society, shape the novel’s narrative basis. Postcolonial criticism is an interdisciplinary research field and the subaltern studies is one of its theoretical branches that intends to rethink the society and the texts in order to grant subjectivity to the various forms of the subaltern. This paper investigates Dowlatabadi’s approach to creating a postcolonial system in the novel, Missing Solouch. Our analysis of the story from this perspective reveals Dowlatabadi’s deconstructive method and anti-colonial attitude in his critical reflection on the crises caused by the indirect foreign domination in the rural lives of the ordinary people.

Ontological approach to literary texts is not only a way of expressing the literary specifications of the text, but also a way of knowing the human beings better in the society where the story takes place. In ontological studies, the object of study is mainly the relation between man as subject and the text and the others. Subjectivation is passing through subjectivation and such a process is the basis for the ontological analysis of human being in the contemporary philosophy. Applying such an analysis to a Persian literary text known as a postmodern piece may define and clear the aforementioned points. Based on this research, the subject in postmodern Persian literature is considered as textual subject. The textualized subject does not have a priori identity. Instead, it depends on the position of the textual subject. A decrease in objective specification of the subject and a raise in its subjective specification are the consequences of such a situation. This article deals with the procedure of textualization, specifications of this procedure, and its results according to an analysis of “The Ruined Story” written by Iranian writer, Aboutorab Khosravi.