PERSIAN LITERATURE (FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES)
Year:2018 | Volume:8 | Issue:1 (21) |Papers Count:7

Determining the origin of poetry has always been one of the oldest issues of literary criticism. This debate began firstly in Greece where, based on existing sources, Plato and Aristotle presented their theories about it. It has also been taken into consideration in the Arab literature. During Jahiliyah period, the Arabs believed in "subsidiary"(Tabi'ah). This belief also existed in Ancient Persia, and it remains intact even after the arrival of Islam into Iran. Moreover, it is also reflected in the poetry of mystics, in a way that the mystic poets' references to this issue can be divided in two categories of intermediate and immediate inspirations. The poets also tended to religious personalities, using Gabriel and other characters instead of inspiring Satan for instant, in choosing subsidiaries (Tabi'ahs)، with regard to the social context of Persian literature and the influence of religious thoughts in Iranian society. The contrast between poetry and sharia has always been influential in choosing religious figures as inspiration for poetry in Islamic period; however, mystic poets did not believe in just spiritual nature of poetry and considered their own efforts important to compose poems. Their point of view about the attempting scope of the poetry can be explored through a careful focusing on the verbs they have used in their poems.

The city of Rafsanjan is located in the northwest of Kerman province, Iran and its people speak in a local dialect of Persian. Oral literature plays a significant role in the popular culture of the city and reflects well the way people live in it. Based on aesthetic criteria and indigenous make-up and jewelry, the details of Rafsanjan's traditional feminine clothing have been explored from 600 local quatrains in present study. Since there are many similarities in the names and the forms of clothes in the cultural geography of the Persian language, it has been attempted, to some extent, to refer to these similarities in explaining the components of these types of clothing. Chador and burqa, Charqad (a kind of headdress), shirt, skullcap, arkhaluq (a kind of long and collarless shirt with no button), shoes and handkerchief are among the list of clothing and the details of the coverings have been mentioned in the quatrains that show the importance and the diversity of Rafsanjan's traditional feminine clothing, their social status, their occupations and even their wealth. The type of women's makeup and its related norms and the few attempts were common in their traditional thinking for the sake of being more beautiful are also being mentioned in present study. Rafsanjan's local quatrains, called in local dialect "Charbeitu", have been collected for the first time by the authors through a field study method. The purpose of this research is to study the traditional feminine clothing of Rafsanjan to achieve a clear picture of it.

“ Allegory” is one of the oldest concepts that have been taken into consideration in many literary studies from rhetoric up to hermeneutics. No attempt has been made to clarify the semantic fields of this widely used concept in numerous studies have been, directly or indirectly, conducted; however, the recognition of the semantic fields of applied terminology is considered as the most basic needs in every knowledge. This study is to explore various examples of allegory in the field of literary studies in Persian, Arabic, and English languages and seeks to provide a clear definition of allegory in each domain. Therefore, referring to the first-hand resources in all mentioned languages, and looking comparatively at the definitions of allegory in the most important sources of Islamic rhetoric, it will be tried to examine this term in rhetoric and other fields of literary studies in West. Based on the opinions of rhetoric experts about allegory and the ways the poets and the writers used it, three main meanings can be recognized for this term: a) allegory as a rhetorical technique; b) allegory as a literary type; c) allegory as a form of reading and interpreting literary works.

Intertextual semiotics is one of Michael Riffaterre's achievements in the field of intertextual criticism. He made effective efforts to apply the theory of intertextuality in texts and to discover the semantic and implicit implications of texts through discussions of non-grammatical, interpretive, hypogrammatic and matrix topics. In semiotic reading, the audience initially faces with non-grammatical issues encountering the text. The critic, then, can reveal the semantic and implicit implications of non-grammatical issues to achieve the “ matrix” or the core of the text by examining the “ accumulation” , “ descriptive systems” and “ hypograms” . Asghar Elahi's novel, “ Salmargi” , has been analyzed in present study using intertextual semiotics. The study of the non-grammatical elements of the novel leads to accumulation (death and life) and a descriptive system (death). Then, “ the problem of death and its inevitability” would be obtained as the matrix or infrastructural element of the novel through exploring and reading of hypograms. This study also shows that the actual narratives of the matrix, or hypograms, relate with some mythical concepts such as “ immortality” , “ invulnerability” , “ deterioration” , “ original sin” , “ fate” , “ fear of death” , etc. with a range of beliefs in Shahnameh about the death and stories such as “ Rustam and Sohrab” , “ Rustam and Esfandiar” , and “ Afrasiab and Siavash” in a way that all the characters of the novel are somehow involved with their own or others' death.

IRAN's governmental and administration system has changed throughout the history. Some of the jobs and government positions have been disappeared in this procedure, as well as some administrative terminology used in certain periods that are no longer common. Perhaps even, some of these terms have transformed semantically, and today their exact definition and application is unclear to us. Using these terms in their literary and historical texts, the Iranian authors (writers or poets) have occasionally created fantastic interpretations and combinations. Searching for the main meanings of such words/terms used in ancient texts and paying attention to the meanings the writers or the poets intended to transfer can provide a more accurate understanding of the past administrative organization. "Parvaneh" is one of the above mentioned governmental terms had been used in both ancient Persian and Arabic texts and has been semantically transformed. The use of this term, its related interpretation and idiomatic combinations have been studied, in present research, focusing on some outstanding literary and historical texts created up to 8th century AH, and it has been tried to find its accurate meaning and position in the past government agencies. On the basis of the results the meanings are: commandment, permission, bill or document, seal, courier, servant and chamberlain.

The present study is about the old literary works known as 'Ajayeb-namehs (wonderings). Not being of much interest to the scholars, such texts have been re-read in some literary studies on the basis of the theory proposed by Tzvetan Todorov (a Bulgarian-French structuralist) about the genre of fantasy, and have been distinguished consistent with some of the concepts of his theory. But some methodological contradictions have occurred by mixing of concepts or the researchers' carelessness have led 'Ajayeb-namehs not being read correctly or being misunderstood in course of their nature. This study is to open up a new way of conducting a different reading of these texts and to outline the reasons for the importance of the “ method” in the looking types about them through scrutinizing "science" as one of the fundamental concepts in definition of 'Ajayeb-namehs. It has been shown, in present study that 'Ajayeb-namehs can be read in different ways, based on the pictures we draw from science. Although paying attention to concepts evolution is one of the key points in reading these texts. In this way, enjoying a historical perspective that examines the emergence and development of texts in their own historical context has a fundamental role in understanding their nature.

Persian language learners can be classified by several aspects such as their nationalities, their mother-tongue, being mono or multilingual, and their age that is itself divided to three groups of children, adolescents and adults. There are similarities, and also differences in language learning program of each of above mentioned groups. Non-native Persian language learners are divided, in present study, into two groups: 1. Adults, and 2. kids and adolescents. The kids and adolescents literature is originally produced for the audiences in the same age category, but the first part of the study is to answer whether the kids and adolescents literature is an approprate program for teaching non-native Persian language adult learners or Not? And after finding the answer, is to explain what types of Persian kids and adolescents literature seem being suitable as a program. Since the authors found no theory or hypothesis to benefit as a theoretical framework, this study has been accomplished through an inductive reasoning method to answer the research questions, because according to the research background, answering the research questions has also an innovative aspect. The results show that, based on educational and literary principles, a for-kids story is an appropriate base upon which one can teach Persian Language to non-native adult learners.