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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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Sayed Mohammad Reza Ishghi is considered one of the constitutional poets in Iran and a forerunner in the case of literary modernism. The concept of   literary modernism is closely related with romanticism and its expansion from constitutional literature onward. Ishghi is the most outstanding poet of romanticism in his contemporary time. While his romanticism enjoys lyric elements; it is more concerned with social and revolutionary issues. Referring to ups and downs in Ishghi' life and highlighting romantic aspects of his works, this article analyses some of his works including "Maryam's three painting". Also, the romantic features of his works in terms of form and content will be presented.

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Unlike ancient rhetoricians who rejected ambiguity altogether, modern theorists consider it as a value. This article, initially, presents a historical survey as well as the modern approaches to ambiguity and highlights the modern aesthetic tendency toward ambiguity and polysemy. After the early years of 20^th century, ambiguity was considered as the essential essence of literary texts by literary critics and theorists. Second, the article discusses the value of ambiguity in literary works and draws a borderline between difficulty and polysemy (i.e. pluralization and multiple meaning). Then, it introduces some kinds of ambiguity and elaborates on their distinct features. Meanwhile, this article pinpoints the basic deference between language and literature through emphasizing the value and function of ambiguity.  The main purpose of the article, then, is to emphasis that "ambiguity as inherent nature of literature" and stresses the principle saying: "the artistic value of a literary work and the secret of its eternality depend on the amount of its ambiguity". If one ignores the ambiguity in literary texts, he would lose its spirit and essential essence. Ambiguity causes an interaction between   reader and text and fosters the ability of meaning creation by readers.  Through persuading the readers to react to the content of text, ambiguity provides the opportunities for generations to engage in different dialogues with text across time and history.

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In this article, fantastic genre as a literary genre which nowadays has significantly become common in contemporary literature of Russia, will be studied. "My Father is an Antibiotic" is an outstanding example of this genre, which has been written on the basis of critical conditions and abnormal events of the present world and their influence on humans' life. Afterwards, through introduction of Sergei Vasilivich Lokiyanenko as one of the pioneer fantast writers in modern literature of Russia, we will  examine his works and his motivations for choosing this specific genre. Sergei Lokiyanenko is a writer with a marvelous skill at portraying life in past, present and future, with the help of imagination and science. He wrote "My Father is an Antibiotic" in 1992. In Lokiyanenko's view, it is hard for contemporary man to get accustomed to modern lifestyle, numerous numbers of newspapers, increase of contacts, and new methods of communications. He believes that unprepared for facing such an attack, man's spirit sometimes prefers to sacrifice real world and sink in a world made by his own mind. In this novel, the writer tries to show that children are the main victims of abnormalities and pugnacities of adults in the present world. Through analysis of "My Father is an Antibiotic", as a fantastic work of Russian contemporary literature, we have also tried to somehow pave the way for the Iranian readers to get familiar with contemporary literature of Russia, particularly fantastic genre.

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In some instances of comparative literature research, it is not precisely possible to accredit a literary work to a specific nation or ethnic group. The reason, it seems, lies in the lack of a precise definitions of national literature which in turn is due to the imprecision of the standards set for national literature. Whereas one camp, mainly the disciples of the French school of comparative literature, view language the sole, or at least the strongest criterion for setting the domain of international and national literature, the other camp, mainly the proponents of the American school of comparative literature, casting doubts upon the validity and the efficacy of the linguistic criterion, go for a political identity criterion. Of course, along these two criteria, sometimes other criteria such as historical continuity, shared cultural identity, religious and theological borders, political ideologies and even geographical (co-territorial) borders are also posed.   

To investigate this problem more profoundly, the present authors, criticizing the above-mentioned standards and criteria and displaying their inadequacy and imprecision, have made an attempt to propose cultural components and the cultural discourse dominating the work as a promising standard. 

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The French speakers’ acquaintance with Iranian culture and literature took place later than that of speakers of Latin and Greek. The history of French language should be distinguished from the history of French literature. The French language developed gradually from the 5^th century and after the independence from the Roman Empire. That is why the history of French literature was first realized as epic literature in the 12^th century corresponding with Crusades. French Christian priests who had an essential role in creating the French language and literature were familiar with Zoroaster via translated Greek or Latin history books. However, more generally, via Bible and Torah, they regarded ancient Iran as the savior of Jews and Jesus Christ. During the Crusades, Iran was constantly regarded as an Arab country. Parallel with movement of Christian priests in the Mongolian period and the Christians’ influence in the royal palace, Iran’s name became well-known. However, we should regard the influential translations as a production of Christians’ long residence and learning of Persian language during and after the Safavieh period. One may consider two significant periods in the reputation of the name of Iran: The18^th Century whose literary works embrace a collection of manuscripts influenced by translations, interpretations, and reproductions. These works were criticized from Renaissance to the end of the 17^th century, mostly by monarch messengers, especially Christian missioners, in the form of analytical dictionaries, oriental novels, dramatic subjects, fables and myths. These sources dramatically influenced the woks of such elites as Montesquieu, Voltaire, and the authors of the Diderot encyclopedia who marked the thought crisis period of the Great French Revolution. Although the translations were considered as Platonic, paratextual, and racial due to lack of Persian literacy, they had a drastic effect on the intellectuality of the French society and resulted in the foundation of a significant field named Orientalism in the 19^th century. In this era, translation of Persian works was done by trained diplomatic agents in a more organized way. Its influence was realized not only in politics but also in the Romanticism school; specifically, in the works of Victor Hugo and other literary schools such as Symbolism and Surrealism. In ideology and anthropology, Gobineau, who was under the influence of Aryan race, provoked a number of argumentations which, in turn, led to racism in the 20^th century. 

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Mythology allocated a large part, fundamental and effectively to the human mind. The knowledge of mythology in fact recognizes the important infrastructure of ideas, culture and civilization. One of the most common ways to study mythology is to implement psychological ideas in mythology. The result is not only a better understanding of mythology, but also a better understanding of human psyche and man’s individual and collective life. In this study, we want to take advantage of Jung's theory of personality psychology to explore the myth of the creation of man in ancient Persian mythology. In this paper we refer to Jung's theory of personality psychology to explore human creation in ancient Persian myth. Carl Jung believed that in human there are two sexes together. Kiumarth, the first human in Persian mythology is a creature who denotes both a man and a woman: Mashya and Mashyana. The evolution of the first giant into the king-priest, the expansion of his character and finally his martyrdom are, according to Jung's theory, the steps that existed in the Persian myth of human creation. This article studies the human creation on the basis  of ancient Persian and the Middle Persian sources in the light of Jung's personality theory.

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The Poetry of the Constitutional period in Iran has been a turning point away from encomiums and mystical poetry of the prior ages. This shift is primarily characterized by a poetry dealing with socio-political issues such as freedom, homeland, etc. Contemporaneity of the Jadidieh Period in Tajikistani Poetry with this era in Iran paved the way for the maturation of the Constitutional Poetry in Iran. The method of the research is analytic-comparative and aims to investigate how this two interact in terms of subjects and contents. This study classifies the poets into three categories of “patriots” (like AdibulmamalekFarahani and Irajmirza in Iran and Fitrat in Tajikestan), “revolutionaries” and “elegiast” (like NasimShomal and MomenGhena’at in Iran). Studying the poetry in this period shows that the title “Motherland” is the first shared subject of Iranian poetry (Constitutional movement period) and Tajikistan (Jadidieh) which replaced the romantic lyrics of the previous age. The poets in the era of “Awakening” and modernism speak in their poems of their love of homeland, “freedom”, “prosperity” and “progress”. The topic of “homeland” both reveals the universality of the subject in the literature of this era and also indicates the changes in their essence and tones. Of other common thematic issues are 1- Fighting with dictatorship inside the country and defending motherland against foreign threats, 2- human rights, women’s rights and gender equality, 3- freedom and law, 4- acquiring modern sciences and education, 5- reforming and modernizing poetic topics and using colloquial terms, 6- fighting with religious superstitious ideas and ignorance.

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At some historical points, all classes and professions of a society, despite all the differences and disagreements, flow into one single stream to reach a higher goal. Iranians have had this historical experience many times throughout history: during the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911), and also in the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In the Constitutional Revolution, all classes and professions of the society sought a higher goal that was the eradication of despotism and the establishment of the reign of law. In this Revolution, Persian literature, including poetry and prose, was at the service of the Revolution and satire became the revolutionaries’ main media. Literature of this era became so thoroughly mixed with politics that we can consider the great literati of this period as the great makers of the history of Iran. In this article, we have tried to explore and prove their importance.

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The crisis of representation is a topic widely discussed in critique and theory of postmodern literature. This refers to the crises of the present era including the crisis of meaning, the perplexity of contemporary humankind amidst a mass of valid and invalid data, alienation, etc. Literature, as the epitome of human life, is a reflection of these crises in the contemporary era. Azadeh Khanoom and Her Author or‌ the private Auschwitz of Dr. Sharifi, written by Reza Baraheni, is among the most well-known novels of the last three decades in Iran. This novel is regarded as a noteworthy example of postmodern fiction. In the present article, the crisis of representation in Azadeh Khanoom and Her Author is analyzed based on “subject”, as the philosophical substitute for the concept of “man”. In this analysis, the crisis of representation, its consequences for human subject and its influence on Baraheni’s fictional characters are explored; consequently, crises such as identity crisis, personality crisis, etc. can be considered as complications of man’s current affliction of the crisis of representation.
 

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As the most prominent novelist in contemporary Persian prose, Jalal Ale-Ahmad has had great influence on Persian writers, insofar as many writers have followed his suit. Employment of colloquial language is the characteristic style of his fiction. What makes his different, however, is mainly the employment of colloquialism in a subtle, precise and accurate way. Due to the extensive use of colloquial language in his fictions, this article studies terminologies, phrases and figures  such as metonymy, interjection, onomatopoeia, reduplication,  and also argot and proverb. Having defined these components in his selected works, the authors of this article will put forth some examples and, in multiple tables, illustrate their frequencies. According to a precise examination of his novels, we concluded that among different types of speech, respectively, the metaphoric phrases, argot, assimilation and then reduplication have the highest frequency in Al-e-Ahmad’s prose. He writes in broken Persian to convey the sense of colloquial language in his novels. Substitution and reduction are the most frequent methods he uses when he writes in broken Persian. Interestingly, this frequent colloquial style in his writings has led to a widespread popularity of his novels among the people.

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The terms “majmūʻe”, “safīne”, and “jong” are presently used in the senses which may differ from their past meanings. Some related terms in Arabic and Persian languages, such as “bayāż”, “jarīde”, even “korrāse”, “daftar”, “mofrad”, and “jozv” have been coined for special concepts, which are hardly definable in some cases. Therefore, acquiring a relative perception of these terms, with regard to their application in the texts and documents of each period, is indispensably necessary. Some of these terms have been inserted into each other’s semantic fields or have lost their exact meanings in various periods; therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to their semantic evolution. In this paper, firstly the oldest uses of the three basic terms “majmūʻe”, “safīne”, and “jong” are studied in Persian texts up to the end of the ninth century A.H. For this purpose, the literati and poets’ references in the texts, and the old anthologies (safīnes and jongs) are examined to clarify the meanings of the terms and their semantic changes during several periods. In addition, the relationship between the terms and their common uses in other eras are referred to in brief.
 

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The Reduplications are made by repeating part of the base. The repeated part does not make sense and will never be used alone and is just popular in spoken language. In recent times, they have been used in some texts of poetry and prose, in particular, in stories written in vernacular. This research, with a historical approach, and with an analytical-explanatory method, examines the information obtained from literary and historical sources; and while analyzing the use of reduplication in Persian language and literature, it investigates three hypotheses: first, the effect of the changing of the face and meaning of the ancient Persian vocabulary on the formation of reduplication in Persian language; second, the effect of the Arabic syntax on the formation of reduplication in Persian language; and third, the effect of Arabic vocabulary and synonyms on the formation of reduplication in Persian language and literature
According to the findings of this research, the history of the use of reduplication dates back to the thirteenth century AH. Most of the compositions, from the first to the thirteenth century AH, are seen in poetic and prose works, and the writers of dictionaries have described them as examples of reduplication but in fact they are synonyms connected by conjunctives which due to a change of face and passage of time are mistakenly claimed to be reduplication. Reduplication has been introduced into Persian language since the thirteenth century AH. This was due to the prevalence of Arabic vocabulary in Persian language and also people’s habits of using synonyms in speaking. Along with developments in Persian prose and the tendency of writers to simplification and vernacularism, these compositions were introduced into Persian texts, especially satirical fictional works. 

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Since human soul seeks excellence, he continuously hunts for answers to his questions. Therefore, he works towards tools to help him achieve a better life, create a dream world (Armanshahr) or utopia; a nowhere; his desired world. The Sufis has been more attentive to the local realities of their society, and they saw the society full of shortcomings and sought to lead their people into a desirable world by knowing the existing society and understanding its shortcomings and failures. The mystic understanding of Sanaei, Attar and Rumi of utopia is different from the perception of philosophers and scholars. In this way, scholars, poets and writers attribute some features to utopia, and although these features share some commonalities, they are different in some aspects as well. In this research, we have tried to study the main literary works of the 6^th and 7^th centuries through descriptive-analytical methods to, on the one hand, explore the evolution of the concept of utopia in the works of the elders of Persian mystic poetry, and on the other hand to explore the characteristics of their utopias and their differences according to the socio-political characteristics of that period.

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Heroism is one of the main themes in popular Persian prose stories. The hero in these stories has characteristics that generally belong to the mythical beliefs and traditions of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Iran. Many historical and social factors are important in the transmission of these traditions and beliefs but one of the most important ones is Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. In many cases, the actions and characteristics of the hero in the Shahnameh can be considered to be the prototype of the hero in popular Persian prose stories.
In this study, by examining four heroic prose works of Persian folklore, each belonging to a specific era, we identify and compare the heroic, political, and social characteristics of the hero-pahlavan and his comparison with the Shahnameh. The results of this research are as follows: Despite the formation of these works in the historical centuries, the hero has retained many of the mythical and epic features of the Shahnameh. Some of these actions and features are perfectly in line with the mythical and epic examples of the Shahnameh, and the narrators and writers have attempted to match the Pahlavans of popular literature with the Shahnameh. In some cases, despite similarities, there are differences between these actions and characteristics. The differences have often been due to the heroic ethics and some of the heroic and social political and social practices that result from the intellectual and cultural situation of the era of popular literature and the changes and transformations of the Ayyari system. Most of similarities can be seen in terms of appearance, combat power, type of birth, upbringing, growth stages, and the ideal years of the heroic.
 

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The purpose of the present paper is to study the specific historical conditions in which a new relationship between “literary texts” and “public education” was established. This created a different formulation of “literature”. To that end, the genealogical method was used. From a genealogical point of view, phenomena have no meta-historical nature and are constructed following historical events and within complex power relations. The findings show that “poetry” and “education” in the mid-centuries discourse had a specific definition, function and formulation and that they established a relationship with each other in connection with the mechanism of the collector power and the construction of the hierarchy of society. The confrontation of Qajar rule and Iranian society with numerous crises such as war, cholera, and famine challenged the collector power. With the activation of new mechanisms of power (disciplinary and bio-power) and the formation of the assumption of equality, the hierarchical structure of the society was gradually weakened and the issue of public education as a way to save the state and the nation became problematic. The discourse of literary criticism turned the “Iranian people’s manners” and “literary texts” into issues and established a new relationship between the two. Meanwhile, a collection of texts and various social situations came under the umbrella of “literature”. In sum, the results indicate that the change of power mechanisms in the Qajar period marked a fundamental shift in the historical existence of Iranians and a new state of affairs was established; “Literature” and “education” bore new definitions, functions, and connections, and they established a new relationship with each other.
 

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In his lyricism and eloquence, Hussein Monzavi benefited from the great heritage of lyrical and epic literature, poetic images, fictions, and religious allusions in order to create imagery and expand the meaning and themes of his poems. The Divan of Hafiz is one of the main sources of influence on Monzavi’s poems in terms of form, meaning, and musical coherence. He also benefited from borrowing Hafiz’s clauses, rhythm, allusions, verses, and sonnets. Love and the hardship in its path, pledge of trust, drinking merrily, and social issues are the themes in Monzavi’s poems which were under direct influence of Hafiz. Monzavi’s imagery of love and its manifestations has similarities with Hafez’s poetry. The present paper is an endeavor to investigate the influence of Hafiz on Monzavi in terms of form, rhythm, meaning, love, the image of the beloved, and imagery. The findings indicate that Monzavi benefited from Hafiz’s single elements, rhythms, and themes in about two hundred instances.
 

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Linguistic politeness is a phenomenon that is usually observed in everyday human interaction and shows how to use language to manage the interpersonal relationships of speakers. Qabousnameh is one of the most important texts of Persian didactic literature, which Onsor Al-Ma’āli wrote in forty-four chapters, with the aim of educating his son, Gilanshah, and his learning about social etiquette, knowledge, and techniques necessary for life, government, statehood, etc. Iranians have long cherished this book because of its didactic value and have used its anecdotes for educating their children. In this article the representation of linguistic politeness in Qabousnameh was studied using the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson. The findings showed that politeness was conceptualized as a social and cultural phenomenon in Qaboosnameh, which is the result of constructive interaction of individuals with mental, expressive and behavioral dimensions: in the mental dimension, consideration of audience and measuring the contextual situation and reflection on speech and its various meanings and effects; in the linguistic and expressive dimension, the standards of eloquence and the etiquette of speech; and in the behavioral dimension, the significant or influential negative and positive speech acts in language politeness were introduced and explained. In this paper, out of many cases that were studied in Qabousnameh, 27 examples were presented using the descriptive-analytical method and the pragmatic approach to the Brown and Levinson theory. According to the author of Qabousnameh, speech acts of the parties to the dialogue can save or threaten the face of the speaker and the audience; therefore, he proposed strategies to save or promote the face of the parties. Qabousnameh can be considered as one of the oldest texts in Persian literature, which mentions body language and the need for its proper use in linguistic interaction and interpersonal relationships.

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The narrative of The Blind Owl (Buf-e Kur) goes through scattered “writings” in which the “painter” narrator, in captivity from the burden of his “wall of the house” shoulders through the entire story and tells the “swallowing shadow” of himself. It is only in the first part of The Blind Owl that the “ethereal girl” “manifests” through the “ventilation hole” of the closet of the same “house” which is located “on the other side of the ditch”. In the present study, the psychoanalytic theories of the French Jacques Lacan, of which language-centeredness is also one of the basic premises, are effective tools that pave the way for reflection on the linguistic aspects and related symbols in The Blind Owl. What explanation Lacan’s “The Real” provides for the progress of the plot of this modern story as well as how the result of such a view sheds light on the interpretive nature of The Blind Owl and its prosaic aspects constitute the author’s concerns.


 

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