COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES
Year:2009 | Volume:2 | Issue:8|Papers Count:10

The two Muslim countries of Iran and Kuwait have witnessed a painful aggression from the part of Saddam dictatorial regime. Saddam’s attack to Iran leaded to an 8 year imposed war, which is called Persian Gulf 1st War. His attack to Kuwait leaded to invasion of the country and finally the greatest war of the contemporary era after 2nd world War, which is called Persian Gulf 2nd War. The bitter events and anti-humanistic crimes of the former Iraqi regime against these two neighbor countries are innumerable. The present study is to probe into the common subject matters of the poetry of the two countries, from a critical and analytical viewpoint and via conducting a comparative analysis of the resistance poetry, which appeared during and after war in the contemporary literature of Iran and Kuwait. It is hoped that the present study paves the way for comparative investigation of other common fields of the contemporary literature of Iran and Persian Gulf countries, which have a great history of cultural and economic cooperation.

The comparative literature has been surveyed as a university course in the present article. Indeed the comparative literature is a kind of worldview which goes beyond the national, lingual and geographical boards. The author also differentiates the world literature and the comparative literature and believes that the world literature does not deal with the effects and affects and studies the literary works individually despite of the comparative literature.The author – knowing that – there is not a single definition of this course, tries to express and analyze different definitions of comparative literature. The researchers should notice that the comparative literature’s goal is not to compare but to recognize the literati in general which the details – national literature – are interrelated. The author of the present article believes that the comparative literature is philosophy and a new theory in studying the literature.

The present article expresses the historical, political, social, cultural and literal fields in the formation process of Epic poetry with a comparative look. It also surveys the reflection of religious values (province, injustice, jihad, martyrdom, propagation of human ideals) in Arabic and Persian literature by offering informative samples; and at the end studies the concepts, verbal and spiritual structures and their literal consequence s and values.

The present article surveys the outlook to the systems theory and the status of its usage in analyzing the short stories. The personification and specially the relations between them at the beginning and the end of the story by emphasizing the systems theory has been studied in this article. Some results have been obtained including:1. A story is a system generally; namely the systematic system.2. A system may respond a single firm response to all outputs in a special case.3. One of the most important factors is sensitivity. The function of some short stories lacks this sensitivity.4. The other factor is the random variable. The probability of different events is equal.5. There are some systems which the final behavior is dependant from the beginning; indeed the output is dependent from the input.6. The other capability in systems is the system’s memory or intellectualism. That’s why some of the stories are understandable despite of their complexity.7. The last factor is the tendency toward form rather than the prearranged patterns.

Charles Baudelaire and Sohrab Sepehri – French and Iranian poets – are regarded as the most innovative poets in their eras. These two introverted poets were always seeking a Utopia with the aim to find the cosmos truth and reaching the ideal world; thus they have been interested in nature, traveling, mysticism and etc.The present article has surveyed some of the thoughts and concepts of Sepehry poetry which have been similar to Baudelaire’s. Although there are many similarities between Sepehri and Baudelaire in the way of seeking a lost paradise, there are some remarkable differences between them as well. The present article has surveyed some of the content similarities and differences of their poems.

The comparative literature is one of the literature branches which enables us to perceive the similarities between intelligentsia and literati despite of the time and place differences among cultures and nations. Thus we were persuaded to compare Khaqani Shirvani – Iranian poet – and John Donne – English poet – from two different countries with two different cultures. Some similarities could be observed in their looks to women despite of the time and place distances. The present article tries to survey two remarkable panegyrics on the ideal woman by allusions to some of their poems. The commonalities in their views have formed the basis of the present article.

Iran and Iraq have had a common destiny according to their political, geographical and religious situations during the twentieth century. They are known as oilfield countries and the foreign and west countries have always had a covet look to them. During the past century, the intelligentsias of these societies have started to criticize the political and social situation of the country which has been caused the combination of social criticism and political issues. Great poets and literati were emerged in that era who have expressed their reforming messages with a new form regarding the mentioned issues. Mozffar Al Navab – an Iraqi poet – and Ali Akbar Dehkhoda – an Iranian poet – were two of these literati and intelligentsia.

The present article surveys the elegy and its different types in Persian and Arabic literature. It also surveys the procedure of elegy in both Arabic and Persian literature as well as its circulation in both languages; where is the beginning point and which Persian and Arab poets have elegized. The basis of the present article is the comparison of Khaqani’s elegy – on his son’s death – as a sample in Persian literature and Abol Hassan Tahami’s elegy – on his son’s death – as a sample in Arabic literature. In order to clarify the elegy’s position in Persian and Arabic literature the similarities and the differences are expressed in this article.

The main subject of Meraj Nameh is “journey”. The passengers of these spiritual journeys explain the journey of their spirit since they ascent according to their beliefs.“Viraf” – the Zoroastrian priest – and “Ibn Qareh” – the Arab poet and writer – are two passengers to the afterlife who explain their observations and the status of their journey.The present article analyzes the quality of their journey to the afterlife and surveys the similarities and differences of their books – Ardaviraf Nameh and Al Qofran Resaleh with a comparative look.The author of the present article tries to express the similarities as well as the effect of Ardaviraf Nameh on Al Qofran Resaleh and introduce this Iranian-Zoroastrian line as the first Meraj Nameh of religions.

The analyzers of the comparative literature feel the literal dealings in the comparative researches. These researchers generally prefer the relations between different languages. It has been observed that the Persian poets were affected by other languages and compose their poems in the style of that language; the interested language of that era was Arabic. In that period the poets were being familiar with the rhymes and rhythms and had versed Odes and Sonnets which were admirable for Persian literature. It is remarkable to state that Hafez and Sa’di were not excluded of this honor. They have enjoyed the religious and Islamic symbols and ethical concepts in order to verse special couplets which some of them have been surveyed in the present article.