JOURNAL OF NARRATIVE STUDIES
Year:2020 | Volume:3 | Issue:6 |Papers Count:12

In this study, four Iranian tales have been selected as cases of study to be analyzed based on the theories of contemporary narratives focusing on the similarities among the antagonists' actions. The study aims to reveal that how and through what qualities similar action in these stories have been created by storytellers in a variety of ways despite the characters of these stories. The main question is what the fundamental similarities between the actions of antagonists in the Iranian folk-tales are; in what basis do these antagonists' actions form? This research intends to classify the frequency of action patterns in the antagonists and reveal the similarities in their actions in a comparative way. Having an analytical and descriptive method, it concludes that in spite of the similar and common actions and the productions of all kinds of “ identical evils” by antagonists in folk-tales, the content of their actions follows the inhuman behavior of antagonists.

The emergence of comparative literature bestowed to a great extent the democracy and justice to the world of doing research. One of its branches is interdisciplinary studies which deal with the mutual interactions among different sciences. Before the twentieth century, time was considered as one of the rigid criteria which was used to measure the world. By the advent of Einstein's theory of relativity, time was to be considered relatively. Despite classical authors who viewed time from the outside and considered it as the causal consequences, modern novelists distorted the time sequence and employed the stream of consciousness as a means of their narration. One of the most successful works, in this respect, is Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (1929) in which he follows the theory of relativity and ignores the linear conception of time. The major concern in this paper is to analyze the impact of Einstein's relativity on the early twentieth novelist in general, and on The Sound and the Fury, in particular.

Theory of narrative semiotics of Paris school has a prominent place in narrative studies. It refers to "meaning" and the manifestation of meaning, closely related to Greimas’ narrative approach. Reproductive pattern of meaning is the most important concept of Greimas’ theory of narrative semiotics. In order to know meaning and its structure, Greimas tried to achieve the universal grammar of narrative language. In the analysis of narrative texts, Greimas’ actantial pattern is more flexible than the other narrative patterns, findings its way to Discourse Action. In this paper, the narrative analysis of The Symphony of the Dead in two levels of a) surface structure (or objective), and b) the deep structure (or abstract data), will be discussed based on Greimas’ theory of narrative semiotics and his actantial pattern considering how structures are formulated. Stream of consciousness is the most important feature of this novel through which the narrator breaks the unity of time and place with a realistic view in creating his characters. The study borrows a descriptive-analytical method; the main questions are how the plot of this novel with its surrealistic space can be analyzed based on Greimas’ theory of narrative semiotics, and which factors of discourse play role in the production of meaning based on the Greimas’ actantial model.

The emergence of comparative literature bestowed to a great extent the democracy and justice to the world of doing research. One of its branches is interdisciplinary studies which deal with the mutual interactions among different sciences. Before the twentieth century, time was considered as one of the rigid criteria which was used to measure the world. By the advent of Einstein's theory of relativity, time was to be considered relatively. Despite classical authors who viewed time from the outside and considered it as the causal consequences, modern novelists distorted the time sequence and employed the stream of consciousness as a means of their narration. One of the most successful works, in this respect, is Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (1929) in which he follows the theory of relativity and ignores the linear conception of time. The major concern in this paper is to analyze the impact of Einstein's relativity on the early twentieth novelist in general, and on The Sound and the Fury, in particular.

Because of its high resemblance to realism, naturalism has been regarded as an extreme form of realism that interprets all events in nature within the framework of the natural sciences. This school focuses on the inherited characteristics of the environment and reflections of the real life far from idealism; it also draws ugly, immoral, and corrupted details about the environment. Radubis, a work of Naguib Mahfouz, the famous contemporary Egyptian author, is a historical-social novel in which traces of realism, naturalism can be traced. La Curé e (The share of hunting dogs) by Emil Zola, the most famous author of French naturalism, is also a historical-social novel that demonstrates the real historical events of the communist environment in a naturalistic style. Due to the common theme in these two books, this study aims to investigate them in terms of some traces of naturalism in the context of comparative literature through a descriptive-analytical method. The findings suggest that the characters of the novel in ‘ Radubis” , are the rulers and politicians in Egypt, and the characters in “ La curé e” are parvenu/ nouveau riche of the Second French Empire. The heroes of the stories have particular prominence that the authors do not insist on writing about them. Naguib speaks of the real events of the social environment such as the history of contemporary Egypt and its issues, moral corruption in the royal palaces, prostitution, etc., and criticizes the authoritarian rulers. On the other hand, Zola demonstrates the ugliness and immorality of aristocratic families during the Second French Empire, in line with the school of naturalism. Both novels represent many commonalities such as inheritance, physiological science, love as a physical force, morality and ugliness, among others.

Alger Das Julien Greimas is one of the most successful theorists in the field of narratology and narrative function. In order to examine the different types of narratology, he tried hard to provide certain and stable paradigms. He has put forth his actantial model, narrative chains, and semantic model. In this study, the structure of the story Firouz and Shahnaz by Mohammad Sadegh Nazem, (Sadegha), a Persian poet and singer of the 11th century AH in the Indian subcontinent, has been analyzed based on the theory of Greimas in order to extract the whole layout and meaning of the story considering the actantial system, contrast actions, and the narrative chains. This research is based on a descriptive-analytical method. The study focuses on how this simple but systematic model of Greimas reveals Firooz aad Shahnaz’ s multi-layered and deeply-built narration. The story’ s characterization, moreover, shows how this systematic theory highlights the dominant order and arrangement over different layers of narratology.

The versification of prose narrative has always been of interest to Persian language poets. One of the most important courses of versification of religious narrative in Iran, which has attracted no attention yet, is that of old testament narrative story. In this process, some adjuncts are added to the prose narratives. In this study, however, some of narrative poems from the old testament, namely, The Letter of Moses and Joseph and Zuleikha by Shahin Shirazi, and Aqidat-Yashaq by Molla Aminahave been analyzed and the causality patterns of these adjuncts extracted. The results imply that the causality pattern of these adjuncts show interpretive, expansive, and associative patterns. In interpretation pattern, the cause of one vague event is expressed through real and sometimes superfine events. In developmental pattern, some adjuncts like destiny and the companionship of God with his prophets, physical features, spiritual features and misery are added to the context. In associative pattern, the association between a part and a similar whole has been used. Since all of these patterns are used in the old testament, it is likely that later poets have adopted such patterns. Finally, it should be mentioned that such adjuncts are to persuade and direct the reader, not merely to have a creative and literary narrative.

The discourse of postmodern in illustrative books in the conversation between global and local issues, generally includes social, moral, and multi-cultural facts. Generally, the discourse of postmodern is moving toward decentralization; this sets the stage for philosophical questions in the visual texts process, questions that consider the audience as an agent among the multi-agency of the illustrative books. As a result, in these books, which are based on contrastive views, there is no centralized individuality, and interaction is the most primary goal. The article is aimed at finding methods with which an illustrative-narrator utilizes strategies to decentralize visual texts. These strategies include framing and spacing, narrative structures, dynamic imagination, and temporal and spatial breaking and blocking of the surrealist logic which lead to interaction in the current postmodern discourse and pave the way for philosophical questions and research. In doing so, Voices in the Park written by Antony Browne is studied as a case study and other examples are also mentioned to discuss the issue. The question is how decentralizing components are shown in illustrations by the illustrator.

Discourse-semantic sign is one of the new critiques that helps psychoanalytic criticism to examine the emotional processes in the text. The Fig Tree of Temples is the last novel by Ahmad Madameh. The author, while narrating the story, deals with the personality's internalization. Some characters in this novel, influenced by the family environment and the social inequalities stemming from the struggle of tradition and modernity, are subject to humiliation and anxiety which affect their actions, speeches, and lifestyles. Thus, different issues can be examined according to the discourse-semantics and the theory of Adler and Horney, which emphasized the effective role of culture and society in creating the complex of humiliation. In this study, the author uses a descriptive-analytical method to characterize the behavior and speech of the three main characters, namely, Taj al-Muluk, Faramarz, and Farzaneh. According to discourse-semantics, in their emotional awakening and due to skin defects and anxieties such as loneliness and frustration and the impact of the environment (community discrimination), these characters use aggression, grudges, and revenge, and show their emotional identity. The emotional discourse in this novel is more intense and leads to the emergence of inductive and discursive discourses in the characters of the story.

So far as the study of semiotics of discourse is concerned, language expressions are related to a complicated process in which some semiotic elements interfere. Unlike the methods of structuralism in which language manifestations are regarded as outside objects, some kind of discourse presence is important in this approach. Dynamicity of this presence leads to the discourse orientation, expansion of relations, and the interaction between convergent and divergent forces. This research study considers personification, a human characteristic given to non-human being, as a discourse process, and analyzes the narrative structure of the folktales, ShahBezen and the processes of making meaning and personification. In this story, besides enunciation of non-human actor, there are some states such as ShahBezen's kindness to her kids, her decision to build a firm and safe home, sympathy of the carpenter and Salow towards ShahBezen and her vengeance to wolf; these humane feelings and emotions are attributed to non-human being in the process of personification. The findings show that the process of personification makes a maximal and minimal bipolarity through impressing the cycle of meaning in this process. Thus, some elements such as occurrence, incarnation, pressing and expanding systems, and interruption are important.

The name and the portrait of Alexander is one of the most repetitive themes represented in Persian literature and the Iranian art from the Sassanian era. In the remained papers of Demot, Great Ilkhanid Shahnama, there are also narrations of Alexander's life in 12 pictures. This study, analyzing Alexander's ascension, tries to find out the heterology between the text of the image and the literary text of Shahnameh, and then discuss the intrinsic signs and textual clues as well as their hidden meanings. Finding the boundaries of this heterology, it can be obtained that how much the painter remained loyal to the text of Shahnameh, and to what extent he sought to achieve the semantic implications, and revive his particular discourse or his own historical period. This is a narrative study based on the narrative semiotics approach. The purpose of reading social direction of visual sign has been suggested by Kress and VanLeeuwen’ s social-semiotics pattern to visualize the social strains of the visual symbols. In the pattern of social-semiotics, not only the lines, colors, the movement of light, and the creation of volumes are analyzed to enhance the interpretation of the semantic implications, but also the effects and the theoretical currents out of the image, such as cultural, religious, political and social contexts are examined. The present study indicates that there is a difference between the text of the image and the literary text in Alexander's ascension as an artist's effort to independently create the image and transform the work of art into a representation of his thoughts at the time.

Having a linguistic approach, Gerard Genette considers any explicit and implicit relationship between texts as transtextuality. Brian McHale, having a philosophical approach, considers the text as a world, and calls the relationship of these text-worlds as “ Transworld” . McHale borrowed the term transworld identity from Umberto Eco, and used it in the sense of the transmigration of characters from one fictional universe to another. McHale's purpose of raising such a paradigm was to explain the dominant ontological element in the postmodern texts. The ontological infrastructure of science fiction and the imaginative stories with the infrastructure of postmodern stories, on the one hand, and the use of the transworld identity as a knitting or relieving method, in addition to postmodern stories, on the other, have a high frequency in the child's fantasy stories and adolescent science fiction. Thereby, the present study, using a descriptive analytical method, focused on a case study, aims to answer the following three questions: how many types of ontological structural relationships do the worlds may have together, and which ones are used as a platform for transworld identity? What are the most popular themes for classifying the transworld identity in child and adolescent stories? What is the relationship between the ontological mixing of the above-mentioned universes and their complexity, with regard to the child's audience? In the context of Iranian fictional literature in general, and the story of the children and adolescents in particular, the present study deals with the transworld identity and the relationship between its underlying worlds.