COMPARATIVE LITERATURE RESEARCH
Year:2014 | Volume:1 | Issue:2 (2)|Papers Count:7

The present work is a comparative study of Aristotelian and narrative dramas with reference to “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles and “Mother Courage and Her Children” by Bertolt Brecht. The basics of Aristotelian drama come from Aristotle's Poetics, which was considered as an undisputed tradition in drama until the eighteenth century. The aim of this dramatic tradition is catharsis, which is achieved through pity, fear and empathy in the audience. Among the other main principles of Aristotelian drama are the observance of the three units: dramatic climax and peripetia, and the first and the last moments of excitement. The narrative drama is based on Bertolt Brecht's non-Aristotelian theories in drama. Brecht believes that we must create a critical distance from daily events through alienation so that the audience can reconsider them and develop a critical view. The duality of the actor's role, the inconsistency between the actor's thought and action, time leaps, musical interruptions of the story, strong lightening on the stage, a half-empty stage with a half open curtain, the use of titles at the beginning of the scenes, and putting placards that free the audience from illusions are some of the alienation techniques used in Mother Courage and Her Children. Aristotelian drama emphasizes the unity of sequences and coherence of events, and considers the playas a whole, which aims at involving the audience wholeheartedly and making the audience identifies himself with the hero of the play. In contrast, narrative drama is a montage of single scenes, which causes pauses in the play. In this type of drama, the audiences, because of frequent interruptions, does not get involved in the play, gets distance from the scenes, and is persuaded to critically view the play, present solutions, and make decisions. In sum, the fundamental difference between these two types of drama lies in the effect they have on the audience. In this work, an attempt has been made to discuss the major difference between Aristotelian and narrative dramas with a number of examples taken from Oedipus Rex and Mother Courage and Her Children.

Nizami Ganjavi was a great Masnavi writer of the 61h century (AH.) and one of the founders of Persian poetic fiction. One of the attractions of Nizami's Masnavi is blessing, litany, and ascensions that are seen in the beginning of each of his verses, which have been highly regarded by his followers due to their beauty and unutterable imagination. The current paper intends to make a comparative study of Nizamis Khanisa (or five poems) and three Arabic ascensions before it; i.e. Kitab al-Maera] of Qashiri, Maeraj al Nab; of Ibn Abbas and Al Isra 'a va al Maera] of Ibn Hajar Esghalani and Sayouti that have shown similarities and differences in structure and content. Hence, it is concluded that in spite of distinguishing features, Nizami has been much influenced by the aforementioned works in performing his ascensions. To this end, the literature of Nizami was matched with the evidences acquired from the above ascensions so that similarities become more apparent and obvious.

Literary works are good sites for cultural energies; to live, negotiate, and challenge the dominant discourse and each other, sometimes this presence is reproduced and sometimes, if is challenged. P. Macherys “The Unconscious of the Text” and A. Sinfield’s theory of Faultliness show that how literary works trouble the dominant discourse.Some women - in Shakespeare's tragedies- revolt against the dominant discourse of Elizabethan patriarchal ideology; they question its basic assumptions and its very ideology. On the other hand, S. “Greenblatt in Circulation of Social Energies” states that the dorninant social energies or discourses are continually reproduced in the literary works. In Safarbeygi' s poetry-although the socio-political ground-works have been changed in the favour of women rights-the patriarchal ideology is reproduced in a circular movement; men have constructed that ideology centyries ago, then it came into their collective unconsciousness, and finally, via the help of literary works, it entered the society again.

Chivalry and agility that is also translated as “generosity” have been very important phenomenon in the social history of Iran and surrounding countries and is a spiritual way of life that seems to have its roots in pre- Islamic Iran. They are divided into different categories that are called as 'caliber' and 'brat' in Persian and Arabic literature, respectively. Caliber was a group that had made ethics and campaign-specific career choice and self- indulgence and brat also defined as impoverished with no money, on the other hand people who had no interest in wealth and joined that house because of poverty and social imbalance. This study relying on comparative literature of American schools that merely doesn't see the criteria existence of affect and affected attempt to make a comparative study of these two emerging fields within the common social and ethical implications. It seems that the main reason behind the formation of each of two groups was lack of community-based justice and social harmony. The most common social and moral characteristics of the two groups are: clemency; patience in the face of adversity, courage, generosity, support for the poor; combat skills including shooting, fighting, theft and robbery. This article also refers to common moral and social characteristics and examines the reasons behind the rise of the two groups.

The study of purports and themes-with many objection in west-is one of wide researches in the current comparisonal researches. Subjects are historical and cultural substances and important elements of the text, thus we can analyze it. Some of subjects and purports are ultranational and universal; study of these subject, can explain the history of thoughts and ideas of two or more nations at period of times and tell us where they come from. One of the universal subjects that is very important in Islamic culture and many of people argue about it, is that asceticism has different meanings, and literal and conceptual schools take different meanings from them. The meaning of asceticism has extered to literature too. Thus some of Poets are called ascetic. Sanaei Qaznavi and Abu Eshagh Elbiri are two representatives of asceticism Persian and Arabic literature. This research wants to present their point of views about asceticism and world to take the meaning of asceticism and its function, and to show that, although there are some similarities in these two rationalists, there are some differences between their thoughts.

Human's knowledge in each era and regarding the paradigm of that era di vides the knowledge into different categories. One of these categories, which was identified in the 19th century, is the field of comparative sciences. This kind of knowledge, having specific properties, separates itself from comparative studies and different types of pure knowledge. This research is to study comparative sciences and particularly their philosophy of existence. Unfortunately the scientific society in Iran lacks such macro-approach. Not having a general view is one of the disadvantages of studying comparative sciences like comparative literature or comparative art. This research investigates a general view about this kind of sciences and their genesis.

Indo-european world view has been reflected considerably in the formation of the Persian poem and prose, because of its literary and contextual grandeur. It has affected many works in various aspects, so that its mythology has been used in the prominent works such as Firdausi's Shahnarneh and the Kyrgyz epic of Manas. However, the way of possessing such a worldview by Shahnameh and Manas is the subject of current research. In this regard, we have described and considered the behavior of heroes in the two works based on the George Dumezil's Three Functions Theory, Our study reveals that the tree functions of the theory have been applied all over the stories of these two epics. This theory is based on the two vises: coordination and contrast; meanwhile Shahnameh and Manas are based on goodness and evil, which are symbolized in heroes such as Siavash/Bakai as well as RostamIManas. The first section consists of the wisdom, intellect and calmness symbols, and the second section is related to the symbols of violence, stringency warmness, militancy, and self discipline; while ordering the Quadruplet elements system, provides the people with peace and self-coordination by its force, Moreover, there are invulnerable Demons and Personages in both epics such as Esfandiar (in Shahnarneh) and MaJgun and Mady Khan (in Manas). However, their only vulnerable spots are their eyes through which they must be killed and their dominance must be ended. This is the motif of “Killing the Demon by blinding him”, which forms one of the worldview's elements mentioned in Indo- european mythology.