Humans vivify their world by expressing emotions. “Expressing Emotion” is regarded as a way to improve the life quality and establish effective human relations. Since Mahmoud Dowlatabadi's works are realistic, they are considered as suitable texts for analyzing human emotions and their emotional interactions among the contemporary fiction literature. This article mainly aimed to find answer for the following questions: “what emotions”, “why”, “how” and with “what consequences” are expressed in the characters? A descriptive-analytical method used to analyze the emotions of characters in Mahmoud Dowlatabadi's stories (Missing Soluch and his ten short stories) in a qualitative-quantitative manner.
The results indicate that negative emotions, especially “anger and fear” mostly for reasons as economic problems, climate aggressiveness, cultural poverty, serfdom system, etc. are manifested in different ways as riots and collective fights, verbal and non-verbal violence (physical and mental harm, etc.) and they overcome positive emotions. Positive emotions as “joy and love” are relatively few and often appear in the non-verbal behaviors of the characters- sometimes manifest in some local and national traditions and often “indirectly”. Effects of emotions, sometimes the cause of the emergence or transformation of other emotions, appear in the biological-cultural-social aspects of their personalities in different ways.
Extended abstract
1. Introduction
Persian literature is an integral part of the culture and history of the Iranian people. In the meantime, fiction is a source to know human moods and relationships in societies, which describes “the quality of a person's life” among different classes of society. From one point of view, literary works are the result of thoughts, beliefs, emotions and experiences of writers and poets, and from another point of view; it reflects people's thoughts, emotions and common discourses.“Emotions” has a great advantage in literature and psychology in such a way that without them, literary and fictional texts seem to be “soulless and meaningless works”. There is rarely a poem or a story that evokes our emotions without expressing them. With these artistic expressions full of emotion, the susceptibility of the audience is also doubled and the writer and reader feel empathy. Emotion in the realm of artistic creations has been considered as “the artist's inner dealings with individual issues and phenomena of the outside world” and it has been divided into three categories: “individual”, “collective” and “humankind”. (Kolahchian, 2013:226).This element is so critical in improving the literary quality of prose and verse texts. In this regard, it is possible to get a detailed explanation by studying the works of Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, as one of the great contemporary Iranian realist story writers. Dowlatabadi's works show the confrontation of the old and new worlds. (Rezai Jamkarani, 140:289). He portrays the suffering and bitterness of people in a traditional society that has dominated people's beliefs, superstitions, minds, thoughts and lives. (Salahi et al., 1401:161). In this article, the author chose the novel “Missing Soluch” and nine short stories with the aim of “explaining the quantitative and qualitative aspects of human emotions” in Dowlatabadi's works, and investigated “the reason of emergence”, “the ways of occurrence” and “the effects and consequences of creation” (or change) the types of emotions of the characters in the above-mentioned stories. In this research, among the many emotions that have been discussed in Persian literature and psychology, six main emotions (fear, anger, disgust, sadness, joy and love) - based on Caroll Izard's opinion- were the basis of the analysis.
Research Method
This research was done in a “descriptive-analytical” way, citing reliable library sources. After “defining, expressing the types and place of emotions” in the two fields of Persian literature and psychological science, as well as introducing terms related to fiction literature such as: novel, story, short story, etc., “human emotions” in terms of “quantity and quality” according to the questions and the main purpose of the research were studied among the selected works.
Discussion
3.1. Positive Emotions (Excitements) in Dowlatabadi's Stories
3.1.1 Love
Love or interest is an emotion that creates the desire to explore, manipulate and obtain information from the surroundings. Interest is the most common emotion in daily practice. Maslow defined the hierarchy of needs for a healthy person and thought of it as a ladder that must be climbed in order. In fact, what led Maslow to a new understanding of human beings were emotional phenomena: love, respect. (Shamlo, 2004: 123). Interest is the source of “creativity, learning and developing human abilities and skills”. The level of interest in any subject determines the amount of attention and energy directed to that subject. Love in the two meanings of loving and being loved is an image that is rarely seen in Dowlatabadi’s works, and it is often in the form of indirect behaviors (verbal and non-verbal). His fictional characters for various reasons including, educational methods, ethnic traditions, cultural values and common and ruling customs (especially in villages and the past) on the one hand and social repressions, economic poverty, problems and life hardships etc. on the other hand, don't have much motivation and opportunity to express their emotions, especially love.
3.1.2.Happiness
Happiness is actually the highest level of positive emotion. According to Ekman (1992), the cause of happiness is the pleasant consequences related to personal success and interpersonal communication (Rio, 1397: 187). Happiness is capable of neutralizing negative emotions and increases human strength in facing unfortunate events. This emotion is a forgotten element of a certain period of time that was written by Dowlatabadi. In his works, the characters either have no reason to be happy or they have not learned how to express it “clearly and directly”.
3.2. Negative Emotions in Dowlatabadi's Stories
Negative emotions has appeared more than positive emotions in Dowlatabadi’s works; the hardships of village life, migration, lord-serf society, economic and cultural poverty, personal and social insecurities, patriarchal system, life events, natural disasters, etc. are among the main causes of these types of emotions in the characters of his stories.
3.2.1. Fear
Fear or anxiety is a state of mind that is described by obvious negative emotion and signs of physical tension, during which the person predicts future dangers and misfortunes worryingly. Anxiety can include feelings, behaviors and physical reactions. (Rio, 2017: 345)
3.2.2. Anger
“Anger is an emotion that arises in response to certain situations, whether real or imaginary, and is associated with physiological arousal and aggressive thoughts. These situations, such as threats or attacks, loss of material or spiritual assets, are under the control of others (Rio, 1397: 187). In general, failures and not reaching goals are the main cause of anger. This emotion has a high frequency in the stories and mostly appear in the characters of these stories in ways such as: types of violence, physical, sexual, mental abuse (verbal and non-verbal), group fights, family fights in front of the force and oppression of others or towards women or due to poverty and its consequences (addiction, unemployment, physical and mental illnesses, etc.).
3.2.3. Sadness
The feeling of sadness does not necessarily mean depression. Rather, it is an emotion that humans naturally need like other emotions, but one should be careful to maintain its balance in life. “Loss is the trigger of feeling sad. Grief is actually a feeling that occurs as a result of losing ability or after feeling a loss.” (Rio, 2017: 366). By knowing the feeling of sadness, you can accept it at the right time and then eliminate it.
3.2.4. Disgust
Disgust means: “getting rid of something polluted or rotten.”
Through this emotion, which is considered a defense mechanism, incividuals actively discard some psychological or material aspects of the environment (Rio: 2017: 334).
Conclusion
Among the selected emotions, negative emotions, especially the two feelings of anger (31%) and fear (23%), have the highest frequency, which are created often in response to chaotic life conditions and factors such as: economic crisis, class conflicts, group differences, cultural issues, false social traditions, unsavory customary beliefs, etc. and mostly appears in ways such as: verbal and non-verbal violence (verbal arguments, fights and beatings), individual and collective conflicts, abuses physically, sexually, etc. The characters in the story often show negative emotions “easier and faster” than positive emotions!. Positive emotions obviously have a low frequency and appear more indirectly in the emotional relationships. “The effects of emotions” (individual and social) mainly appear in the form of changes in temperamental characteristics, the appearance or exacerbation of some moral abnormalities, behavioral disorders, physical diseases, severe nervous reactions etc., finally, the degeneration of the target society at various levels.
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