PERSIAN LITERATURE (FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES)
Year:2020 | Volume:9 | Issue:2 (24)|Papers Count:12

Epanalepsis is a literary device whose use in literary texts has a long history. Repetition of words in poetry has different forms, epanalepsis being one of them. This research, with a new approach, tries to trace the historical course of ancient Persian rhetoricians’ views on epanalepsis. It also describes other forms of literary repetition mentioned in their books. From rhetoricians’ point of view, there are six main positions in the structure of each verse of the poem. Epanalepsis is an example of the repetition of a word based on these positions. In Persian poetry, however, repetition has other patterns too. In the present article, these models are examined from a critical perspective in order to take a closer look at the rhetoricians’ critique of poetry and to pay more attention to this form of repetition in Persian poetry.

“ Mostazad, ” which is a classical form of Persian poetry, is the most important background of Nima Yushij’ s poetry. Studying the recent posthumous publications of Nima, we understand that many of his experiments were done in the form of mostazad. He mostly used masnavi to write mostazads, a practice that does not have a long history in Persian poetry. His mostazads with their creative forms regarding the order of lines and the rhyme scheme merit further attention. It seems that no other poet has this many masnavi-based mostazads and his experiments with this form are unprecedented. Modifying the rhyme scheme in his mostazad, he found an opportunity to experiment with this element. Thanks to such experiments with this form and other classical poetic forms, he eventually created his own poetic form in which lines did not necessarily end with rhyme. Nevertheless, some of his mostazads, due to their creativity, have not been recognized as mostazads, inasmuch as some editors have published them without using the typography suitable for this form. Accordingly, his skill in writing mostazads is not yet apparent to his readers and even to some researchers.

The Walled Garden of Truth is the first Persian mystical poem. It opened the way for poems such as Tuhfat al-Iraqayn, Makhzan al-Asrar, and Masnavi. The importance of this poem in Persian literature caused many copies to be made of it, and newer errors emerged in most of these copies. Some sources indicate that at least two major copies of The Walled Garden of Truth have been made, leading to differences in chaptering and difficulties in correction of the book. In addition, the book has lingual difficulties, which has also caused problems in research studies. The thematic and lexical significance of the book on the one hand, and problematic analyses and notes on some of its verses on the other, are among the reasons that a conceptual analysis of the verses of this book is carried out in this study. Adopting a descriptive-analytic method and using library facilities, the article seeks to elucidate the position of Sanai and the The Walled Garden of Truth in Persian literature. The major undertaking of this study, in addition to correcting some of the errors made to the book by scholars and obtaining the meanings of some vague verses of it, is to introduce new concepts for some of the words, compounds, and expressions — such as Dabbabi, Poostgal and Poostgaleh, Reshteye Chah, Shiroodsooz, Dast ba Ran Gharin Shodan, and Ahmad va Ahmad — used in this book and not clearly explained in Persian dictionaries.

Simile, and generally imagery, can be analyzed from a myriad of perspectives. Amongst them is the elements of images — their effects and roles in the rhetoric of a given poem and in its ironic meanings. This paper studies two prominent functions of the signification of the elements of imagery. First, we analyze the role the elements of images play in constructing the tone. To do so, we demonstrate how different selections of elements form different kinds of textual tone and ambience. Second, we examine the potential and capacity of the vehicle and the elements of simile in generating their implicit and secondary implications. This potential is sometimes fulfilled to the extent that these elements and their ironic significations assume a more crucial role than the grounds of a simile. Thus, the function of vehicle may go beyond exaggeration or expounding on the tenor and its potential implications may turn it into the main locus of simile and signification. The paper provides examples from some poems in order to avoid any ambiguity.

Rashid al-Din Vatvat, a poet and prose writer of the Khwarezmian court, was one of the most eminent figures in the 12th century AH. His fame and reputation in his lifetime went beyond Khwarazm and most of his contemporary poets such as Adib Sabir, Abd al-Vasi Jabali, Suzani Samarqandi, Seyyed Hasan Ghaznavi, Asir al-Din Akhsikati, Anvari, and Khaqani mentioned him in their poetry. The biographers after him recorded an extensive account of his life and considered him as one of the best panegyric poets of 12th century contemporary to the Khwarezmian. Vatvat’ s widespread fame as a high-ranking official of the Khwarezmian court and an eloquent poet aroused the interest of biographers and scribes to attribute other poems of unknown and less important poets to him; poems which are not nearly close to Vatvat’ s style of poetry and whose original poets, by investigating some old anthologies, may be identified. This paper highlights inserted poems in Vatvat’ s Divan in Nafisi’ s critical edition (Tehran, 1960) which is to date the only edition presented to academic assemblies. These poems are not likely to be composed by Vatvat, but since past biographers and scribes attributed it to him, Nafisi inserted them in his critical edition. This study discusses the reasons why the previously mentioned poems are not Vatvat’ s and, to the extent possible, mentions the original composers of them. The results of this article can enrich the studies on Vatvat’ s poetry and manuscript analysis.

Since old times, many books have been written about Persian poets, providing biographical information about them. At first glance, most of the materials seem to be completely valid, but when examined precisely and critically, plenty of contradictions and differences arise. Thus, it is a better idea for researchers to refer directly to the poems to extract correct information. One of the greatest Persian-speaking poets is Suzani Samarqandi. Academicians know him mostly for his obscene literature. Therefore, they have not paid enough attention to him. This essay is an effort to evaluate some biographical materials about Suzani based on his own words. It also tries to dispel some doubts and uncertainties of contemporary researchers about his life — regarding his date of birth and death, his repentance in old age, and his religion. It demonstrates that Suzani was born between the years 476-486 AH and died in 569 AH. He most probably followed the Hanafi School. Moreover, he most probably did not stop writing obscene literature and panegyrics until the end of his life. From his mid-life on, however, he expressed regrets about his obscene literature and the eulogies he had written for the people in power.

This article presents a formalist reading of Houshang Golshiri's short story "The Wolf". The first sections of this article provide an overview of the basic principles of Russian formalism. In these sections, Golshiri's views on form and formalism in literature are evoked to emphasize his being influenced by the Russian formalists and the new novel in France. By doing so, we have attempted to explain the theoretical framework applied to the present reading of "The Wolf. " Indeed, here Golshiri's short story has been read according to his own theoretical writings on form in narrative fiction. It can be said that examining the literary devices in "The Wolf" provides a clear understanding of Golshiri's theoretical works. The present study shows that Golshiri uses techniques such as choosing a minor first-person narrator, disrupting the timing of the events, reporting public belief and rumor, delivering his narrative in pieces and not as a linear whole, using contradictory narratives and using a special language to create a structural ambiguity, which results in defamiliarization. In other words, the aforementioned techniques have greatly reduced the "referential" aspect of the Golshiri's language and have "highlighted" the formal components, raising the text to a certain level of "literariness".

Conveying the message to the reader is the main function of prose, especially a historical text. Therefore, such a text should use less rhetorical methods that hinder the achievement of this goal. However, since in Persian literature, poetry has been the dominant literary medium and prose has been influenced by it, prose has inevitably adopted various literary techniques that are specific to poetry. Even historical prose, whose job it is to report the history directly and without the intervention of poetic emotion, is no exception. Even some historians, instead of remaining faithful to their historiographical task and only recounting historical events, have adopted a literary tradition and have become literati-historians. One of the literary devices employed by such historians is “ allegory. ” So far, most researchers have studied the use of allegory in poetry, and have paid less attention to its presence in Persian prose. Thus, using a documentary-analytical method, this article examines this literary approach in the important texts of historical prose in order to evaluate the historiography of the authors of these books. It tries to demonstrate that the authors of historical texts use various forms of allegory and this does not prevent their texts from conveying their messages, but helps transmit objective concepts and retell historical facts to the reader.

From any point of view, it is undeniable that Saadi’ s work is innovative and singular. However, as far as similes are concerned, Saadi does not seem to be innovative. Simile is considered as a prominent stylistic element to the extent that change in style is attributed to change of similes. It is considered as the manifestation of the poet’ s worldview. But, Saadi’ s similes do not show newness with regard to the properties they assign to the topics (tenors). Yet, the point is that the distinctiveness of his similes does not lie in the properties, but in the vehicles that he employs. That is, he uses familiar properties of the literary tradition but unexpected and unfamiliar vehicles. This unpredictable use of vehicles is an influential factor in the formation of Saadi’ s unique style. Obviously, Saadi’ s greatness is not merely because of the similes he uses; rather it is perceivable in all the layers of his works. Examining the main elements of Saadi’ s works with a special focus on the similes, this paper, in particular, addresses the element of unexpectedness in them.

Grammatical roles and functions of elements of speech comprise the syntactic structures of language. Farsi, considering its syntactic structure, is a free language in which the order of words is based on the speaker’ s mentality, philosophy, and dominant thoughts. Grammarians study syntactic structures from a linguistic point of view disregarding their literary functions. Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani, among rhetoricians, has studied the arrangement and order of words. According to his “ theory of order” all syntactic structures and arrangements are a result of meaning construction in the speaker’ s mind and thought. This article studies the frequency of omission and rearrangement of major components and syntactic structures of Naderpour’ s poetry based on the theory of order. It indicates that his poetry is a varied and yet proportionate collection of common and fluent structures of Farsi. It is a product of the balance between meaning and syntax as well as the arrangement and order of the poet’ s thought. His deep mental experiences as well as intimate and accessible poetic thought enable him to have a balance between the mind and the language where the former forms the meaning and the latter expresses it, so that his poetry is straightforward and lucid in conveying its meaning.

This article investigates and compares the views of Descartes and Rumi regarding the duality of the soul and the body and their interaction from the perspective of ontology and epistemology. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that Rumi is a dualist from an epistemological point of view and a monist from an ontological one, whereas Descartes is both epistemologically and ontologically a dualist. Descartes believes in the existence of two substances, namely the soul (the essence of the thinker) and the body (the material essence); and above them he believes in God. In his opinion, the soul and body are not only conceptually distinct in the mind (epistemology), but also in the external world (ontology). In his method of philosophical theorization, which should possess internal consistency, clarity, and distinctiveness, Descartes fails to provide a convincing justification on the interaction between the soul and the body and their substantial union — which is the historic problem of dualism. In contrast, Rumi’ s method — which is faithful, religious and an expression of his inner and mystical experiences and whose goal is to achieve wonder, not clarity — has no problem in the explication of his opinions.

Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss psychologist, is the founder of “ analytical psychology. ” He, unlike Freud, does not limit personality development to childhood, but believes that it occurs throughout man’ s life span although the goals in the second phase of life differ from the ones in its first phase. From the goals in the second phase of life, obtaining individuality can be mentioned. In the present paper, using Jung’ s analytical psychology, we perform an interdisciplinary reading of Chehel Salegy written by Nahid Tabatabaei in order to demonstrate that the protagonist achieves spiritual development and perfection and individuation in the course of the novel. She embarks on a journey to achieve individuation during which she moves from unconsciousness to consciousness and self-knowledge. Under the guidance of the Wise Old Man, she solves all her inner conflicts, while accepting all her hidden “ shadows, ” and being united with her animus, she finally ends the journey successfully. In this way, she achieves the complete knowledge of her own self, while also passing midlife crisis.