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Hossein Bahri,
Volume 32, Issue 97 (1-2025)
Abstract
Abstract
The Persian translation of The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan by James Morier is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Persian literature. Mirza Habib Esfahani translated this work into Persian from the French translation of the book. The fact that a translated work, through an intermediary translation, can meet such a reception by the readers in the literature of a language is considered one of the rare and exceptional cases. Since the publication of this work, researchers of language and literature, translation, and other fields of humanities have studied its various aspects. However, so far, no research has studied the reception of this translation by Persian readers from a historical perspective. In this article, based on Jauss’s concept of “Horizon of Expectations” and using the descriptive-analytical method, the researcher has tried to investigate various aspects of the reception of this translation by the Persian readers before and after the Islamic Revolution through reviewing the works and examining the existing texts. To do so, from among the studies available on this work, which comprised about 50 Persian articles and books published since 1942, ten significant works (5 published before and 5 after the Islamic Revolution) were selected, and the expectations within them were examined and analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Next, the various themes of the Persian translation receptions discussed in these ten works were extracted and compared. The findings of the study indicated that during both periods, the Persian translation of The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan was of interest to the literary taste and in line with the expectations of the readers, including those of writers, critics, and researchers. It continues to be widely received by the readers, which has made this work enduring and popular.
Mehdi Nourian, Hadi Noori,
Volume 32, Issue 97 (1-2025)
Abstract
This article seeks to critique the elitism in the thoughts of Iranian intellectuals of the 1950s and 1960s. To do so, it carries out a deconstructionist reading of Jalal Al-e-Ahmad’s story titled Farewell from the collection Sitar (literally: Three String Musical Instrument). The book contains 13 stories of Al-e-Ahmad published in 1948. The current study was conducted from the perspective of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida and employed the eight-step strategy of David Boje as a postmodern critical analysis in dealing with the narrative. Boje’s method includes searching for duality, reinterpreting hierarchies, discovering rebel voices, revealing the other side of the narrative, negating the plot, finding exceptions, tracing between the lines, and resituating. The article follows each of these steps to bring about the deconstructionist reading of the story. After using the 8-step strategy of Boje, eight dualities were found: beauty vs. ugliness, core vs. periphery, naked vs. clothed, enlightenment vs. gluttony, rational vs. superstitious, quiet vs. garrulous, boy vs. girl, and activity vs. passivity. Each of these dualities has a hierarchical dominant/subordinate structure, and the narrator narrates the story in a way he is in the dominant position. Then the hierarchy in each duality was reinterpreted so the rebels found their voice and the other side of the story appeared. The romantic plot of the story was replaced with a tragic one, exceptions were found, and between the lines were read. Based on Boje’s strategy and adopting Jacques Derrida’s deconstructionist approach to read Farewell, a new narrative emerged that made possible the critique of the elitist views of Iranian intellectuals during the 1950s and 1960s. It is necessary to go beyond the person of Al-e-Ahmad and get closer to the subject of Al-e-Ahmad as an Iranian intellectual; a subject that has been made possible in a particular context and has produced works. According to the narrative that emerged from the deconstructionist reading of the story, it is concluded that the intellectual subject reproduces the hierarchical relationships, puts himself in a superior position, relies on modern reason, and without considering and understanding the existential relations of the subaltern, seeks to represent them and aims to accomplish what he calls an intellectual mission.
Sinâ Bashiri, Qodratullâh Tâheri,
Volume 33, Issue 98 (5-2025)
Abstract
Life in the modern world is accompanied by anxiety, meaninglessness, and despair, which ultimately culminates in the inescapable fate of death – a theme that has become a central focus in modern art and literature. Due to his pessimistic worldview and his fascination with the concept of death, Hedāyat made the existential impact of death on human life the subject of many of his stories. In Hedāyat’s works, most of the characters suffer from a kind of isolation, pessimism, nihilism, and neurosis, which in many cases lead to their death or suicide. In this article, using a descriptive-analytical method, the fundamental significance of the concepts of "madness" and "terror of death" and the function of madness in confronting the terror of death in Hedāyat’s stories, Buried Alive (Zendeh beh Gur) and Three Drops of Blood (Seh Qatreh Khun), were analyzed. The findings showed that in Hedāyat’s stories, by rendering modern life futile and meaningless and by emptying individuals’ minds, madness plays with death and the terror arising from it, and liberates the characters’ minds from existential anxiety and concerns. By renouncing life before death and making an ironic use of suicide, madness ultimately frees the individuals from the terror of death.
Narges Oskouie,
Volume 33, Issue 98 (5-2025)
Abstract
This article, adopting a phenomenological approach and focusing on the fundamental concepts of Heidegger’s philosophy, provides an ontological analysis of Khābnāmeh (dream narrative) by Yaghma Jandaghi, centered on existential questions. It examines the representation of dream/death and being within the framework of Dasein’s experience. In Heideggerian philosophy, Dasein refers to the questioning being, continuously engaged in the pursuit of meaning and identity in relation to time, death, and other existential dimensions. In this study, dreams and sleep are considered not only as contexts for Dasein’s lived experience but also as liminal conditions between life and death, providing a field for the emergence of existential tensions. From a psychological and ontological perspective, these states offer an experience akin to a rupture from everyday life and an encounter with the most concealed aspects of human existence. Drawing on key Heideggerian concepts related to Dasein and fundamental ontology, such as “hiddenness,” “existential anxiety,” and “being-there/being-in-the-world,” the study demonstrates that dreams, conceived as death and as figurative experience, position Dasein on a trajectory that confronts the hidden dimensions of existence and self. Furthermore, Dasein’s internal conflicts during the processes of dreaming and awakening reflect the fundamental tension between authentic and inauthentic possibilities of being, which can simultaneously be interpreted as a symbolic manifestation of the existential struggle between good and evil in Heidegger’s philosophy. Consequently, the dreams in this work symbolically invite Dasein to face the truth, make existential choices, and recognize human limitations, thereby facilitating a deeper understanding of being and human identity.
Hâmed Dâlvand, Mohammad Khosravishakib, Safiyeh Moradkhani, Rasul Heydari,
Volume 33, Issue 98 (5-2025)
Abstract
The story of “Rostam and Šaqâd” is one of the most technical and coherent narratives in the Šâhnâmeh. In this story, the most prominent hero, Rostam, is removed from the narrative flow. His interest and attachment to Rostam caused Ferdowsi to show great sensitivity and obsession in removing Rostam from the narrative. In order to remove this national figure, Ferdowsi had to exert a lot of linguistic and psychological precision to make the death of such a great and invincible character appear reasonable. As a concrete and systematic approach, new criticism attempts to show the verbal patterns, harmony, coherence, and the internal unity of the components in a work by giving authenticity to the text. The premise of this article is that Ferdowsi tried to make the death of a hero like Rostam believable to the reader by using categories called “trust game” and “emotional deception”. Premises such as “charming”, “persuading”, “creating crisis and urgency”, “creating astonishment”, “transforming my story into ours”, “collusion”, “attracting trust”, “accelerating trust”, and “conspiracy” make Rostam’s murder believable to a great extent. In this article, using the method of qualitative and precise description and analysis of the text, an attempt is made to evaluate Ferdowsi’s linguistic and psychological premises for the justification of the death of his great hero.
Ghodsieh Rezvanian, Mona Taleshi, Reza Sattari, Farzad Baloo,
Volume 33, Issue 99 (10-2025)
Abstract
The novel Madaran va Doxtaran (Mothers and Daughters), by Mahshid Amirshahi, narrates the lifestyle of four generations of women in the context of common discourses of contemporary Iranian history. This research, using qualitative content analysis, combines Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and gender order, to examine the living and intellectual status of women in this four-volume novel. From the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory, cultural capital includes knowledge, skills, and cultural capabilities that enable women to be active and present, but gender order is a social and cultural structure that reproduces inequality and patriarchal domination and establishes women’s position as objects and subordinates. In the novel, the first two volumes show the acceptance of the gender order and women’s limited cultural capital, while in the next two volumes, characters such as Mehrowlia and Shahrbanoo, with greater cultural capital, have been able to increase their political and social subjectivity and provide a critique of ideologies and modernity. Based on memoir narratives, the novel represents the conflict between women's agency and passivity, and shows that female subjectivity is shaped by the conflict between limited cultural capital and an unequal gender order, while simultaneously creating the possibility of resistance and change. This analysis introduces the novel as an arena of complex interaction of gender, politics, and culture in contemporary Iranian history.
Dr. Alireza Mohammadi Kalesar, Ms. Fariba Torabi,
Volume 33, Issue 99 (10-2025)
Abstract
Proportionality as an element in history of literary criticism has a key role in GolamHossein Yosefi’s critique. The purpose of this article is to study the nature, types, and consequences of proportionality in literary criticism according to Yousefi’s works specially CheShme-ye Roshan, Didar Ba Ahl-e Ghalam, Yaddasht-ha, Kaghaz-e Zar, Barghaei Dar Aghoosh-e Bad. This paper have studied His attitude of proportionality, the types of proportionality in his works, and the relationship with other components of literary criticism. It can be said that Yousefi applies a wide range of vocabulary to refer to proportionality. For him, types of proportionality also include the proportion between character and his nature, the proportion between different parts of the text, the proportion between formal and content elements. He applies proportionality in relation with some elements such as ellipsis, periphrasis and imaging. according to Yousefi, Thus, observing various types of proportion is a strong point of a text and has consequences such as unity and coherence of the text, realism and credibility, and impact on the readers. In Yousefi's criticisms, (a) no precise definition or description of the aforementioned components is provided, as if everyone agrees on their meaning. This naturalization of concepts is one of the features of Yousefi's view of literary criticism. (b) Despite his theoretical emphasis on the necessity of proportionality between form and content, in practice, it seems that content is more important than form; as formal elements are described by content characteristics. (c) From an evaluative perspective, he considers the types of proportionality and its consequences to be the advantage of a literary work. finally, Yousefi's view of proportion is most indebted to the classical and neoclassical view of this criterion.
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