LITERARY CRITICISM
Year:2016 | Volume:9 | Issue:33 |Papers Count:9

As a model for analyzing the foundation of signification, Semiotic Square was for the first time developed by Greimas. This model is the logical outcome of the development of binary oppositions, and is based on the primary structure of signification. It was first used in the structural analysis of narratives. However, Greimas, Rastier, and some other members of the Paris school applied it in the field of semiotics of poetry as well. Nevertheless, the researchers who have used this model in the field of Persian literature are mainly concerned with its application in the structural analysis of either prose or verse narratives and, as a consequence, there is no comprehensive research on the process of signification in poetry according to this model. Hence, after presenting the basic assumptions of the semiotic model, my paper employs this model in a semiotic reading of poetry. Accordingly, first the basic components of semiotic square and their combination methods are explained and afterwards the internal organizations of the components of some poems by Attar, Mowlavi, and Hafiz are respectively analyzed. Such a research not only provides the possibility for the analysis of the poem’s structure and unfolds some of the more implicit readings of the poem, but also offers a reader-oriented model that indicates how a competent reader recognizes and categorizes the semantic components of the poem in order to reach a better understanding.

A number of Persian literary studies in the recent years have connected the unconscious to the internal monologue and stream-of-consciousness narratives. Conversely, psychoanalysis has taught us that the content of the unconscious has a nonverbal, obscure, and hidden character and, in fact, because of the resistance from the human conscious psyche, this content do not have a way to become conscious and only perhaps someone like a psychiatrist or therapist can interpret it through intermediaries such as dreams or psychosis symptoms. Since such a claim is limited mainly to Persian articles and books, the present article has critically reviewed some of these studies and their theoretical resources. My conclusion is that this error is sometimes caused by lack of proficiency on theoretical issues and often is the result of untrustworthy and secondary theoretical resources. In contrast, in the more reliable scholarships on the stream of consciousness in fiction, the claim of imitating unconscious in this kind of fiction—unlike certain psychological and surrealist stories—is refuted.

Today the interdisciplinary studies have very much influenced the dynamics of the literary criticism. The main goal of our paper is to introduce the “Literary Geography” as a type of literary criticism. As the name implies, this inter-discipline is the result of the interaction of geography and literature, and its emergence is directly related to the importance of the concept of “space” and “place” in the humanities. From the 1990s space and place studies have been a dominant trend in the humanities, which eventually resulted in the birth of the field of “Literary Geography” with its various branches such as “Geocriticism” “literary tourism,” and “literary cartography.” In this study, the theoretical basics of Literary Geography are introduced, relying on the concept of space and place. Furthermore, we have introduced some important related subfields and their use and current position in the academic studies. Among these branches, “literary cartography,” as a prerequisite for literary geography, is emphasized more than the other branches. Literary Geography provides an apt ground for analyzing different aspects of poetry and fiction. The collected data in Literary Geography can be instrumental in the literary studies and sociology of literature. In fact, geographic data have an important function in literature even though most literary critics usually overlook them.

Yeki Bud Yeki Nabud, a story collection written by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh (1892-1997), marks the beginning of modern short story in Iran. Along with the stories in this collection, also known as the very first attempts to write Persian short story, the foreword to this book is of prime importance in Persian literary studies and literary theory. One of the basic and yet significant concepts of this foreword is “literary democracy.” The analysis of the micro-concepts and metaphors developed in this foreword helps us analyze this particular macro-concept and hence better understand the foundation for the notion of “literary democracy.” It is also important to note to what extend this macro-concept have played a role in modern Persian literature.

The focus on time and temporality is of central importance for the fiction as well as literary criticism of the twentieth century. Georges Poulet (1901-1992) is a Belgian literary critic who opposed formalist approach criticism. He devoted the foundation of his critical-philosophical idea to the time category and studied the “perception” of the writers through their stories. Hushang Golshiri is an influential modern Iranian writer who explicates the question of identity and the perception of time in his works. All his characters, in one way or another, struggle against time. Drawing on a descriptive-analytic method and through Pullet’s theoretical lens, I will expound on Golshiri’s perception of the temporality of a transient instant. The personal space of characters in his stories is closely related to a perception of an instant through different temporal measures—for instance, the act of staying in the long lines, the narrator walking with people, focusing on the steps, etc. all trying to establish an interpersonal perception of time. Furthermore, the past memories in his stories constantly bleed into the present instant through different associations of sounds and images and therefore make the present instant eternal. The fragmented structures in Golshirir’s stories such as the repetitive water fountain or breaking of the small waves on a pool, while pointing to the transience of time, also draws attention to a notion of infinity. In other words, the repetitions, remembrances, and even the act of forgetting in his stories are all essential for constructing a notion of identity in relation to the transience of an instant.

The Islamic Revolution, by transforming the political, social, and cultural foundations of the society, paved the way for experimenting with new modes of novel-writing. In the 1990s, postmodernism became a dominant trend in the Persian novel. Refusing to obey the standard form of the novel as a genre, both in the content and style, the postmodern Iranian novelists have tried to keep pace with their international counterparts and to experiment with new forms. The epistemic background for this literary movement has been the postmodern philosophy. Postmodernism, against Enlightenment rationalism and the concept of an autonomous subject, concentrates on the questions of language and discourse. In addition to describing the position of language in postmodernism, the present study attempts to explain the rhetoric and ideological techniques in the postmodern Persian novels. Studying the linguistic components of these novels at the two levels of ideology and rhetoric, our research reveal that these works of art more frequently employ rhetoric techniques and that there is not a single ideology ruling over them.

Critical thinking is the integration of knowledge, attitude, and practical skill. Today the scholars of education believe that one of the most important aims of academic learning is critical thinking. After an introduction on this subject, our study presents a short history of the scholarship on critical thinking along with the five principals of any act of critical thinking, namely: (1) Inference, (2) Recognition of assumption, (3) Deduction (4) Interpretation, and finally (5) Evaluation of argument. Critical thinking, unfortunately, has no place in the educational system for Persian. Using Watson-Glaser’s questionnaire, we have evaluated the evolution of critical thinking amongst the students of Persian (2009-2013) at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Based on our statistics, we have concluded that the critical thinking has not improved in those years.