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Sociological criticism is one of the modern and efficient methods of the study of literary texts, and today it has a wide application in the analysis of modern literary geners, especially the contemporary Persian novel.                                 This article aims at the analysis and appreciation of the contemporary Persian novel and explores the historical, political, and sociological structure of the Iranian society reflected in some of these novels. The findings of this research show that:

1.Novel is the most complete genre that might respond positively to   modern sociological studies

2.The Persian novel can explain the structures of the Iranian society very well.

3.The more distance we take from the simple structure of the Iranian society in the constitutional age (i.e. , early nineteenth century), the age of the emergence of the first Persian novels, and move towards the more complicated and intricate contemporary society ,the structure of the Persian  novel becomes more complicated and the social themes become more varied and more complex.

4.The themes and subjects treated by the writers of the Persian novels shift from broad generalizations to specific details. This point, on one hand, shows the individualization of the Iranian contemporary man, who has a proper in the modern novel ,and the change of the structures of the society from the ancient simple ,primitive and heroic state to complicated and modern structures  on the other.

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Revival of written works in a society is a way for a better understanding of the society’s culture and civilization. The knowledge of criticism and correction of the texts helps to study the past written works by removing the dust of distortion and time that sits on such works. Saeed Nafisi is a researcher who has entered into this area and corrected some texts in a critical manner for the first time. Most of his efforts were concentrated on reviving verse type texts.

Considering the criteria required in correcting texts, this paper has dealt with his critical methods and views by studying 10 texts corrected by him, including 6 verse type works (Divan-e Anvari, Divan-e Attar, Divan-e Amaaq, Divan-e Rashidoddin-e Vatvat, Robaiyate Baba Afzal, Kkoliat-e Araqi) and four prose type works (Tarikh-e Beyhaqi, Goshayesh and Rahayesh, Lobab-al Albab, Reslaeye Fereydone Sepahsalar).

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Currently, we can hardly find any criticism that has not paid any attention to structural functionalism. Contemporary literary criticism leads to structuralism inspired by de Saussure's linguistic theory. Structural analysis, especially, of narrative works is one of the most extraordinary achievements of contemporary literary criticism. In the stories, fairy tales and epic realm, Vladimir Propp's method is the best for structural stratification and analysis. His method is based on tales stratification and symbolic analysis of each stratum. Vladimir Propp used structural linguistic analysis for narrative analyzing. Propp, having studied one hundred narratives with similar composition,  uncovered the structure of "main narrative" and by analyzing one hundred stories of Russian stories concluded that there were thirty one genres. He believed the method could be applied to other folk tales and even novels. Propp's method has been used by other scholars and sometimes was criticized too. Although  Propp's system has its own defects, it has provided a proper starting point for other theorists and has influenced subsequent theorists. This article follows Propp's model and method and intends to stratify and analyze "Bizhan and Manizhe” Story, one of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh stories, The aim of this article is to probe Propp's model in this story. 

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Critics’ includingVimsat, Brooks, Pen Waren and Renewelek, in their evaluation of poems have focused on differentiating features of classical poetry and modern poetry.Compared with the North branch of literary criticism, the South branch of New criticism has explored the formalistic and structural features of poems. Brooks in his book entitled modern and classical poetry maintains that the formalistic nature of poem stems from an array of intricacies of the corresponding society. Further, he adds that critics should delve into literary works in order to capture the details. Brooks in juxtaposition with narrative system of classical poem tries to establish four categories of formalistic system including categorical, rhetorical, abstract, and associational in the modern poetry. Brooks assumes that non- narrative systems are more complex than narrative ones and sometimes they can be integrated. This results in more density and difficulty in poems. This article probes the possibility of criticizing the contemporary poetry of Persian literature accoding to non- narrative forms.

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Najdi is one of the outstanding contemporary writers due to his specific style. He has a different attitude towards human life and cultural elements of Iran, which makes his stories a good subject for discussion and research. In this article, two stories of Najdi are analyzed in the light of Deconstruction: “The Day of Asb-rizi” and “The Night of Killing Sohrab”. Deconstruction is mostly based on Derrida’s theory. It originated and was initially used in Philosophy and then it spread to literary criticism. The aim of Deconstruction is to find the binary oppositions, to analyze them in order to reveal the contradictory points and to deny the accepted assumptions. The results of this process is to doubt those beliefs that have been considered as axiomatic up to that time. In Najdi’s stories, the binary oppositions include man/animal, man/nature and man and civilization. In “The Day of Asb-rizi”, the opposition between man and animal, and, freedom and slavery causes some contradictions in the major themes of the story. In “The Night of Killing Sohrab”, the binary opposition is that of harsh patriarchal world/ innocent childish world, or, experience/inexperience.

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In this research two kinds of critical approaches are introduced and then some examples of these two approaches are selected and discussed. The aim of this article is to consider the critical fields in Constitution period in Iran, which is counted as the turning point in passing from tradition to modernity. The first approach, in-group criticism, is criticism among the members of one group; the second approach, out-group criticism, is done among the members of two different groups. The example selected for the first approach refers to the “Association of the Faculty” and its two members Mohammad TaghiBahar and Abbas EghbalAshtiani, who stand for Neoclassicism. The second example refers to the “Association of the Faculty” and Bahar in particular and Tajaddod-e Tabriz Journal and TaghiRafat at its heads. The latter group represents revolutionary Romanticism. The method of this research is based ontextual analysis.The analysis of the content of these two approaches shows that the in-group approach in Constitution period was more moderate compared tothe out-group approach and sometimes personal prejudices had a role in the process of criticism. There has been difference in taste in the first approach, and in the second approach the difference is in thought and ideas. If approaches like these could have changedinto movements, they could have been useful in criticism of literature and also in widening the field of criticism. These two approaches, however, had been stopped gradually. Moreover, out-group criticism is considered as the opposition of Neoclassicism and Romanticism in Iran. 

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One of the most important aspects of analyzing literary texts is the consideration of the reflection of the author's thoughts, wishes, griefs and regrets as defense mechanisms. In reviewing the reflection of an author's unconscious in his or her work, psychoanalytic or psychological criticism is often used, in which the critic tries to reveal the influence of the author's mental constraints on hidden layers of the work or to open textual ambiguities using psychoanalytical or psychological principles. The authors of this article have tried to investigate in a short story collection, Be Ki Salaam Konam?, one of Simin Daneshvar’s most important psychological anxieties, that is, "infertility pain"; a pain which though is not traced in Jalal al-Ahmad's independent works, it is present in Daneshvar's stories and appears in different ways. Be Ki Salaam Konam? has become a feminine narrative of Jalal’s Sangi Bar Goori. The subject of most of the stories of the former is "infertility", which is presented using child, adopted child, and grandson in the form of free or affiliated motifs. Daneshvar uses unconscious symbols such as the old women to suggest infertility. The reactions of characters in the stories to infertility can be described through defense mechanisms such as displacement, sublimation and projection. Nonetheless, throughout the discussion, when necessary, the paper will benefit from approaches such as archetypal criticism as well.

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The controversy over Nima's literary theory and poetry has a long history. Literary critics, each of them, supported Nima and presented a special interpretation of him. The problem of this research will be to read the opinions of Barahani and Pournamdarians of the seventies as representatives of academic and non-academic criticism. This research showed that Pournamdarian and Barahani made mistakes in their understanding of Nima and sometimes they went too far in their opinions. Despite all this, it can be said that despite trying to understand Nima in a new way, Pournamdarian is still trapped by the stereotyped traditions of literary criticism, which makes him define new poetry under traditional poetry. On the other hand, Barahani has neglected the historical process of Nima's theorizing and poetry, has gone to extremes in some of his opinions and announces a crisis that we can see in the poetry of the seventies. In other words, tradition and modernity are clearly incompatible in the opinions of these two critics. Pournamdarian wants to mix modern poetry with traditional criticism, and Barahani becomes dogmatic in his criticism.