LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM
Year:2020 | Volume:5 | Issue:1 (9)|Papers Count:8

Existential psychotherapy theory, founded by Irvin Yalom, is one of the most recent post-Freudian approaches in psychoanalysis. This theory detects the root of all human conflicts in four final anxieties, namely, facing death as an inevitable fact, recognizing the loneliness of human beings, free will and its responsibilities, and noting the absurdity of life. Existential psychotherapy adopts Freud’ s theory connecting the origin of all human thoughts and activities to their inner tensions but provides a different perspective on these inner tensions. In this paper, we, first, briefly introduce existential psychotherapy theory and describe its differences from Freud’ s theory of psychoanalysis. Then, using the existential psychotherapy theory, and addressing relevant research questions, we read Sang-e Sabour (The Patience Stone), a novel by Sadeq Chubak that has primary philosophical and psychological topics. Further, we propose existential psychotherapy as the primary literary school relevant to this novel instead of naturalism that other critics have so far associated with this work. In our reading of Sang-e Sabour, we show that the novel’ s story is formed around these basic human conflicts and anxieties. Moreover, we argue that ascribing naturalism to this novel is wrong since the novel’ s content is in conflict with naturalistic determinism and describes the anxieties of free will and its responsibilities. Extended Abstract 1. Introduction As one of the most recent post-Freudian approaches, existential psychotherapy, while relying on Freud’ s emphasis on the role of inner tensions in human ideas and practices, takes a different look at these tensions. Freud believes that an individual’ s thoughts and actions result from their inner contradictory forces, which exist at different levels of consciousness, some of which being completely unconscious. In existential psychotherapy, understanding the nature of the inner contradictions of human beings is never easy. Human concerns are not readily available to the psychoanalyst but are rather concealed by defense mechanisms such as repression, denial and displacement. Existential psychoanalysis assumes these contradictions to be the result of the struggle between repressed desires and forgotten traumatic memories and our encounter with four ultimate concerns of human beings, namely death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. In the present article, Chubak’ s Sang-e Sabour is studied in the light of this new approach. 2. Theoretical Framework In existential psychoanalysis four main human concerns, i. e., death, freedom, existential isolation and meaninglessness, which, unlike in the Freudian approach, are not related to the childhood of the individual, are the focus of attention. In the present article, the underlying concepts of existential psychoanalysis are adopted to analyze the main themes in Chubak’ s Sang-e Sabour. 3. Methodology The present study conducts textual analysis. The recurrent themes of death, freedom, solitude and the search for the meaning of life were identified in the novel and existential psychoanalysis was applied to analyze them. 4. Findings In this novel death and solitude are among the common features associated with the main characters. The characters’ solitude is highlighted by the monologues used in the novel, and, by the end the novel, most characters are either dead or expecting death. Freedom of choice and meaninglessness of life are also recurrent themes in the internal monologues of the main characters of the novel. 5. Conclusion Libido and natural instincts are not the main psychological tensions and motivations in this novel; however, what Yalom calls the ultimate human concerns have been recurrently alluded to throughout the novel. The main features of naturalism, such as determinism and positivist philosophical viewpoints, cannot be found in this novel. Several components of the schools of thought developing after modernism, such as postmodernist elements, which are absent in naturalism, can be found in Chubak’ s Sang-e Sabur.

The story of “ Pir-e Changi” (“ The Old Harpist” ) is an tale with a mystical theme in the first book of Rumi’ s Masnavi. There are a number of similarities in terms of form and content between this story and the story of “ Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame” (“ The Juggler of Notre-Dame” ) written by the great French writer Anatole France. The tale of “ Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame” was adapted from a medieval legend by Gautier de Coincy, a French poet who lived in the Middle Ages. The main character of France’ s story is a juggler named Barnabé who in many ways resembles the old harpist, the main character of Rumi’ s “ Pir-e Changi” . The present article, which has been conducted through content analysis, employs Jungian archetypes as unconscious motifs to examine and compare these two characters to provide a model for the self-actualized individual based on the humanistic psychological principles proposed by Abraham Maslow. This study also investigates the extent to which the protagonists of the two stories comply with the characteristics of the self-actualized individual offered by Maslow. Moreover, the paper addresses the extent to which the role of society and its governing worldview as an effective factor in the psychological development of individuals applies to the protagonists of the two stories. Furthermore, the article attempts to show the degree to which the old harpist has been able to gain the satisfaction of God through overcoming his passions and asks whether the juggler has been able to attain spiritual excellence.

One of the major topics in the scope of interaction between the reader and the text is the level of perception as well as the cognitive, social and cultural presuppositions of the author, the text and the audience. Based on semantic theory, and relying on the level of focal and language prescripts in utterances, structuralists obtained valuable insights in the recognition of perception in the conceptual realm of the text. The Nitra school and, specifically one of its prominent theorists, Anton Popovič , for the first time discussed the semiotics of literary communication, text discourse structure, mental activity and meaning processing by the reader. The ideas of the Nitra school critics and theorists remained ignored in the turmoil of World War I until in the linguistic circles of Moscow, Prague and later in France, Germany and the United States it emerged in linguistic criticism and reader-response criticism. In the first section, this paper introduces the Nitra school and its most important concepts in the scope of the text and the reader communication. The second section considers the work of some recent theorists who, borrowing from this school, have focused on cognitive levels including communication, text discourse structure, mental activity processing, and saving and recovering data. This study shows that the Nitra school is one of the most important schools in the field of stylistics and text analysis that with two communication quality analysis approaches in a single text, and focusing on literature as a comprehensive communication system, has had a prominent but largely ignored role among other schools. Extended Abstract 1. Introduction By relying on linguistic assumptions and semantic theories, structuralists have identified important points concerning perceptions in the conceptual domains of texts. The semiotics of literary communication, the discursive structure of the text and mental activities and the development of meaning by the reader have been discussed in the Nitra School, especially by Anton Popovič , as one of its most important theorists. The ideas of the Nitra School theorists are mostly studied in stylistics, which mainly deals with the cognitive analysis of communication in a single text, and in literature, as a comprehensive system of communication in semantics. 2. Theoretical Framework Discussions opened up by the Nitra School mostly revolve around the issues categorized by formalists in 1914. The cognitive levels of communication are of great importance to them in understanding literary texts. Popovič put forward the concepts of meta-communication and inter-textual continuity and contributed to the interpretative-analytical identity of texts in the Nitra School. In the present article the cognitive levels in this school are studied. 3. Methodology Adopting the descriptive-analytic method, the present paper studies the history of the Nitra School. The fundamental concepts of this school are compared with those of other structuralist schools. 4. Findings This approach is clearly different from the Russian formalist approach to intertexuality. In the formalist approach the self-sufficiency of the text is of great importance, while in the Nitra School the text is the product of an interaction between the ‘ source text’ and the ‘ target text’ . Therefore, any text carries the discursive and ideological load of the source. Popovič finds this process to be more prominent in translation. 5. Conclusion Understanding the main concepts of the Nitra School is of great importance in understanding formalist approaches to reading texts. The ideas of the main theorists of this school were later incorporated into the reader-response criticism and textual criticism. These ideas are in many ways similar; yet, they have differences. The Nitra School theorists developed concepts such as meta-communication, the primary text and the secondary text, thus entering into poststructuralist discussions. They introduced the concepts of literary education and theory of meta-communications and paved the way for a different typology of literary and artistic texts, which eventually led to the sociology of literary life.

The Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1906) and its outcomes opened new doors to the public, and made poets, in particular, address new social and cultural themes that were not previously considered to have any priority. After the Revolution, the formation of leftist parties as well as movements and socialist revolutions, and the emergence of political regimes out of these revolutions, which occurred first in Tsarist Russia and then elsewhere in the world, influenced Persian literature. In addition, socialist slogans were in line with the ideals and needs of some of Iranian intellectuals and social and cultural activists, including writers and poets. Accordingly, from the Constitutional era onwards, a group of poets with inclinations towards, and membership in, left-wing socialist parties, began to criticize the status quo with a socialist approach and struggled against what was called the manifestations of the Capitalist system. These efforts were reflected in their poetry to a remarkable extent. In this paper, we, first, study Socialist ideas, principles and concepts, and the conditions for their introduction to Iran; then, we discuss the reflections of these ideas and concepts in the poetry of Lahuti and Afrashteh, two poets who were officially members of a Socialist party. Objections to class and wealth gap, equal rights, and the defense of the rights of workers and peasants are among the most important issues that these poets, using the Socialist terminology, have dealt with in their poems. Extended Abstract 1. Introduction Persian poetry has served as the most popular tool for Iranians to express their feelings and ideas about important issues of their lives and even the afterlife. No comprehensive research on Iranian art, science and culture can be conducted without studying Persian poetry in different eras. It should be noted that in Iranian poetry the extent to which different issues are dealt with depends on the social, religious and political conditions of each era. That is why most Iranian poets in the past refuse to directly refer to political and social issues – as compared with other common topics – of their time. 2. Theoretical Framework The Constitutional Revolution (1906), as the most significant political, social and cultural event in the early twentieth-century Iran, became the point of departure for many movements and approaches in the above-mentioned areas while, at the same time, introduced new concepts and ideas such as liberty, the parliament, the law, the nation, and the franchise to Persian poetry. Moreover, following the 1917 Revolution in Russia, some socialist parties were formed in Iran, which greatly influenced Iranian literature. In the present article the main ideas promoted in the poetry of two proponents of this movement have been analyzed. 3. Methodology The present study adopts the descriptive-analytic approach to discuss when and how socialism entered Iran. Using a library-based method, socialist concepts that have found their way into the poetry of Abolqasem Lahuti and Mohammad Ali Afrashteh have been studied. 4. Findings The present study shows that socialist ideas can be seen in the poetry of Abolqasem Lahuti more than that of his other contemporary poets, which might be due to his long stay in the Soviet Union and membership of the Communist Party of that country. He openly criticizes capitalism and inequality in his poetry. The poetry of Mohammad Ali Afrashteh is also politically loaded. He supports the working class and denounces the capitalist system. 5. Conclusion Socialism, which is a philosophical school of thought serving as the basis of some political systems, has attracted numerous followers, among which the Tudeh Party of Iran was quite popular with Iranian intellectuals in the mid-20th century. Many Iranian poets followed this school and relied on its main components to express their ideas. Lahuti and Afrashteh were among the most prominent figures of this leftist movement who tried to serve this cause in their poetry.

New Wave poetry emerged as one of the trends in contemporary Persian poetry in the intellectual atmosphere of the 1960’ s. It was influenced by modernism and existentialism; therefore, it can be classified as self-reflective and subjective. In a world where ‘ I’ is placed at the center, events and its surroundings, and even the ‘ self’ are being identified based on subjectivity. Such identification is manifested merely through an exterior and dialogic interaction with an ‘ other’ who the poet addresses as ‘ you’ . An in-depth ontological analysis of this ‘ you’ in New Wave poetry indicates that the signifying and referential scope of ‘ you’ as a pronoun is self-referential in most cases, despite its manifestations. In other words, ‘ you’ has a superficial reference which constructs a narrative identity. This enables the poet to provide better and more precise conditions to understand his/her personal identity within an interior and exterior back and forth movement. However, the signifying scope of ‘ you’ has been expanded to the ‘ other’ as an exterior and independent being to complement and make the ‘ self’ and its surrounding world impersonal. Therefore, addressing ‘ you’ as the ‘ self’ , ‘ sameness’ and ‘ other’ has a cognitive nature, and when the poet begins to look beyond himself/herself, concepts such as justice, freedom and humanity appear in the poems and ‘ you’ also signifies politically and socially.

Feminists consider the definition of ‘ woman’ in the social systems not as her real recognition but as the imposed identification of patriarchal hegemonic culture. To find a way out, feminists invite women to seek ‘ self-differentiation’ and ‘ independence’ . From different feministic perspectives, the ‘ self-differentiation’ theory takes different definitions ranging from matriarchy and the single-gender utopia to intuitive isolation; however, the goal and meaning of all ‘ self-differentiation’ theories is to help remove the images and perceived conceptions of women, in order for them to achieve the true ontology of their agency. Adopting an analytical-descriptive method, this paper examines the reasons and results of feminine independence in Mar’ ashi’ s novel based on feminist attitudes. It argues that although the isolation of the women in this novel is like an arbitrary punishment or exile, but, at least for the main character, Naval, it leads to peace of mind, agency, harmony and unity with the universal elements which result from an intuitive journey, i. e., the point which is central to self-differentiation theory. Extended Abstract 1. Introduction Freud believes that a person can develop a healthy personality if they have successfully overcome their dependence on the “ other” when growing to adulthood. Otherwise, unhealthy dependence and other types of personality flaws can be detected in individuals. Feminists have applied the same attitude to women’ s independence from men and believe that for women to prosper and attain self-actualization, they need to be independent from men. Mar’ ashi’ s novel Haras (Pruning) is an account of women’ s excessive dependence on men and their forced differentiation from them following the eruption of the war, which results in their independence and actualization of their agency. In this article the stages of women’ s independence is analyzed based on this feminist view. 2. Theoretical Framework The feminist theory of self-differentiation, mostly based on psychological and existential ideas, emphasizes the necessity of bringing about changes in the presumptions of the gender-based culture. In the present article, Mar’ ashi’ s Haras is analyzed based on the main components of the feminist self-differentiation. 3. Methodology The present article uses the content analysis method to analyze the reasons for and results of women’ s independence in Haras. For this purpose, feminist ideas from the theory of differentiation have been drawn upon. 4. Findings Losing all the men who supported her in the eight-year war, the main character of the story feels depressed and desperate. She tries to find a ‘ man’ to provide her with support and care. She exchanges her daughter with a boy; a decision that makes her leave her family and move to a new neighborhood, which is a community of women without men where she attains happiness, independence and self-confidence. 5. Conclusion Female self-differentiation occurs in this novel when the main character moves into a place exclusively populated by women. In this place, which is a matriarchic society dominated by feminine culture without the intervention of men in the years following the war, the main character of the novel is able to take a spiritual journey and attain a true understanding of herself. From a passive individual, she turns into a dynamic character and gains her agency by positively affecting the environment.

Bodies are socially constructed in material and cultural worlds. In ancient Persian mythology, heroes had material bodies, which shows that even in the pre-historical era the body was closely related to social class. The present study utilizes the content analysis method, documentation, and library resources to analyze the mythical bodies of Sam, his son Zal, and his grandson Rostam in Shahnameh. The following results were obtained: Warriors do not have ritual bodies but continue to live in the bodies of their children. Moreover, the body in the household of Sam has natural and supernatural manifestations in addressing the demands of the society. The display of the social body in this household begins with the participation of Sam in power relations at the end of the Fereydoon Era. Last, but not least, the triad of Sam, Zal and Rostam is greatly influential in the social and cultural relationships of Iranians. Based on the function of their bodies, they could be classified as redemption warriors in Persian mythology. Extended Abstract 1. Introduction According to the findings from the sociology of the body, the body of arteshtars in Iranian mythology is a class-based body, meaning that the mythological arteshtars can be recognized through their nutrition, characteristics, inclinations, physical superiority and habits. The Book of Kings includes an example of the mythological body discourse, which displays the cultural body of Iranians and the Iranian corporeality in contrast with that of the other. The Household of Sam is a corporeal household and represents different aspects of the class-based body. The body of the hero has a social function and system. Their social body has some major functions: reproduction of the military power while maintaining the status of the pahlevan, maintaining the power equilibrium and resisting kings’ despotism (in the story of Kavus), controlling social emotions, desires and tumults, and defending the country against invaders. 2. Theoretical Framework The sociology of the body deals with the concept of corporeality as a social, symbolic phenomenon. Bourdieu finds a direct relationship between the social body and class and considers the body an intermediary between the society and social identity, with the physical capabilities of human beings playing a vital role in their status in society. These ideas are drawn upon in the present article to examine corporeality in the Household of Sam in The Book of Kings. 3. Methodology The present article relies on the content analysis. It uses library resources to answer the main questions raised in this study and examines the relationship between corporeality in mythologies and social action. 4. Findings In Ferdowsi’ s discourse, the body is in a social discourse and is related to the nodal point of power. The political body of the heroes in The Book of Kings displays a national identity by creating a discursive construct and providing a meaning for its identity through images, the cognitive system, society, social signs and rituals and the protagonists’ opposition to the antagonists. 5. Conclusion A study of the corporeality of the Household of Sam shows that the body in this household is closely related to the concept of the class-based body. The reproduction of military power, protecting the status of pahlevan, keeping aloof from political power, resisting despotism, controlling social tensions and defending the country are among the main social and physical functions of this household. Their body represents the social nature of Iranian arteshtars and contributes to the reproduction and development of culture and the king’ s power. The heroes interact with the king’ s power and serve it and change the mythological king-mobed pattern to a king-hero one.

This paper discusses the role of translated works in the foreignization of the discourse of literary theory in Iran. New literary theories have encountered occasional objections. These theories have sometimes been accused of being alien to our tradition of literary criticism and sometimes of being meaningless ambiguity and complication. In addition to the natural complication of literary theories and the prerequisite knowledge of other fields – which makes their understanding even more difficult – translations have occasionally contributed to this difficulty. The ‘ voice of translation’ , as one the basic components, has always been a matter of importance to theorists and critics, some of whom believe that the translator can exclusivize and specialize a discipline of knowledge by deviating from the voice of the source text and by elevating the level of translation higher than the level of the general audiences’ understanding. In this way, translators can increase the discursive authority of that discipline. By presenting some examples of Persian translations of literary theory, we will show how elevating the target voice above the source voice can result in discursive dominance and wielding power over the audiences and, eventually, their subjugation to the discourse. Extended Abstract 1. Introduction New literary theories have been regarded as irreconcilable with the tradition literary criticism in Iran and at times are considered highly complicated and ambiguous. While literary theories by nature might, to a degree, be difficult to understand, it seems that translations of works of literary theory have added to their complexity. ‘ Voice’ in translation, as one of the most fundamental components, has been of great importance to theorists and critics. By changing the voice, or sometimes elevating it, the translator can make a text more difficult to understand for the general audience and thus make it more exclusive and add to the authority of the discourse in a specific field. 2. Theoretical Framework Of different theories analyzing the relation between voice in translation and power, the theory of discursive presence offers great applicability. One of the greatest instances of the discursive presence of the translator can be identified in the omissions and additions they make. The main ideas in this theory have been used in the present article to analyze some important works of translation into Farsi. 3. Methodology Though interconnected, “ translation criticism” and the “ appraisal of the quality of translation” are different in significant ways and it is necessary to consider the distinction between the two in translation studies. While the “ appraisal of the quality of translation” compares and contrasts the source language and the target language, “ translation criticism” falls more within the field of literary criticism and evaluates the functions and impact of translation on the target culture. The overarching aim of the present study is to critically examine translation and discuss the influence it has in both the target language and target culture. Appraisal of translation lies more in the field of linguistics whereas translation criticism belongs to the field of literary criticism and cultural studies. 4. Findings The present study demonstrates that a specific discursive space is created by those translations that, in their aspiration for correctness, employ strange and unfamiliar equivalents. This discursive space affects subsequent translations. Moreover, the translations in which the tone is more technical and complicated than the original text are a means for displaying the translators’ power. The case studies in the present article show that at points some equivalents are either too much Persianized or too much Arabicized. Despite their technical use and meaning, some of the terms in the original language are among its ordinary words; nonetheless, some translators opt for alienating equivalents. This usually happens whenever the translators consider no boundaries for their discursive presence. Thus, the translations’ faults and inaccuracies tend to be justified by claims about the complexities of the original text and this is, in turn, used to procure credit and authority for otherwise bombastic translations. 5. Conclusion At times translators opt for equivalents that look strange or even incomprehensible to the speakers of the target language, while the original words in the source text are more readily understood by the readers in the source language. Thus, the voice in translation has a multifaceted connection with power relations. The power resulting from the translations of great works by great translators encourages other less-competent translators to use the same type of alienating language, making the audiences accept the discourse that they are involved in and think that they are experiencing an extraordinary phenomenon. The strangeness of the voice is thus connected with authority, which is used sometimes to justify the complicated and at times incomprehensible language in some Persian translations.