نامه فرهنگستان
سال پانزدهم شماره 3 (بهار و تابستان 1395)

Today, the debate over the comparison of literary works across various linguistic and geographical fields is regarded as one of the most serious issues in literary criticism. The present study is a comparison of two influential literary novels: a Persian novel, The Patient Stone (Sang-E Ṣabur) by Sadeq Chubak and a French novel, Germinal, by Émile Zola. No dynamic literature can overlook the influence of other countries’ literary works. Iranian and French novels yield to comparative analysis. Emil Zola, the founder of naturalism, introduced positivism to literature, and Sadeq Chubak is the Persian representative of this school. Studies show that Zola considers the chief principles of positivism such as empiricism, observations, in detail analysis of surrounding facts, factors such as inheritance, genetics and human physiology. Choubak too, has a preference for features of positivism such as observation and experiment, inheritance and genetics, and rejection of superstitions in The Patient Stone (Sang-Ṣabur) but there exist some differences in methods of applying positivism in these novels, which will be dealt with in this research through comparison. In this article, with a descriptive analytical method, similarities and differences in the positivistic approach of the two writers will be enumerated and analyzed.

The present article investigates the origins, themes, and cultural functions of the Iranian blackface and the American minstrel show according to theories put forward by Steven Tötösy and Claudia Guillén in comparative studies. Accordingly, issues and characteristics such as the blackened face, wit, parody, accent mockery, racism, dance and music, as well as socio-cultural and political satire within both cultures have been compared and contrasted. The researchers believe that despite the common African roots of the black figure in the subgenres of blackface and minstrel show and ridiculing the black in both kinds of the plays under study, the black’s position and function in the Iranian blackface are totally different from the American counterpart; that is itself due to the different socio-cultural background of these two subgenres. Moreover, despite their many similarities, the Iranian blackface has a culturally satirical function while the American minstrel is of a racist nature.

The present research deals with the common archetypal origin of poems composed by Abdul-Wahab al-Bayati and Mehdi Akhavan Sales, two contemporary poets from Iraq and Iran respectively. The objective of this article is to reveal the way the literature of different nations such as Iran and Iraq, enjoy an organic unity due to common archetypal foundations. This article uses an inductive approach and an analytical-comparative research method to analyze the common manifestations and representations of anima archetype that has been unconsciously woven into the creation of the two literary works. The researchers consider the common motifs within the two works as their archetypal deep structure. The objective of this research is not only to psychoanalyze the two literary pieces, but also to deconstruct two contemporary literary works from Iran and Iraq with an analyticalcomparative approach. This research indicates the potentials of archetypal criticism in comparative studies and reveals the convergence of literary criticism and comparative literature. The result of this study shows that in spite of common archetypal foundations in both texts, the poems of Bayati have deeper archetypal motifs.

Comparative literature is a new branch of literary studies which deals with comparisons, impacts and influences of similar literary works in different languages. Two of literary works which have not been surveyed comparatively are Bidel Dehlavi's The Picture of an Event and Oscar Wild's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Though Bidel and Oscar Wild lived far in time and place, their prose works bear plenty of similarities to each other, and can be compared in some aspects; therefore, the writers of the present article tend to study these novels comparatively. To do this, after a quick look at the concepts of comparative literature, we briefly discuss the personal, emotional and other characteristics of the two authors; next, we investigate the parallels between and disparities of the two stories; the results indicate that although Bidel and Oscar Wild have some conflicts in their inclinations, their stories carry some similar deep structures. Furthermore, because of the presence of English government in India during Bidel's epoch, it can be said that Oscar Wild has been probably acquainted with Bidel's The Picture of an Event and has created The Picture of Dorian Gray under its impact.

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh , the most significant mythical text in Iran, has been a source of interest to artists since the time it was composed. The rich language of Shahnameh, as well as the belief in the status and role of its discourse in establishing the national culture, give it a distinguished position among similar texts. This paper aims to analyze how the metaphorical narrative of Shahnameh affects its iconography. To achieve this goal, Paul Ricoeur's literary theory has been used. Accordingly, the polysemic nature of the metaphorical text yields to reader's interpretations. The scene of "Siavash passing across the fire", that has appealed to illustrators across various art schools, has been chosen in order to demonstrate the importance of Ferdowsi's metaphorical narrative on the interpretations of illustrators. First, the literary theory is explained and then, the text of Shahnameh and the aforementioned episode are evaluated. Next, a number of illustrations from various art schools are compared with the story; afterwards, the importance of the illustrator's interpretation as a reader is indicated. This articler uses an analytic-comparative method and all the data has been collected in the library. This research indicates that, due to the notable differences between illustrations of "Siavash passing across the fire," the question of reader's interpretation, which is itself the result of Ferdowsi's metaphorical approach to mythical and old stories, comes to the fore. Thus, illustrators, as readers of Shahnameh, independently interpret the text and present their own interpretations of Shahnameh through their illustrations.

The objective of the American school of comparative literature is to study the cultural relations between nations and find out the similarities and differences in human thoughts. Jung uses the notion of “cultural unconscious” when talking about the common literary and cultural heritage of man. The similar narratives of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and Homer's Odyssey can be explained via the commonality of the hero’s voyage and return archetype embedded in both works. Archetypal or Jungian criticism is interdisciplinary in nature and is considered one of the approaches in contemporary literary criticism. The researchers use a descriptive-comparative method to show how archetypal criticism within the general framework of American school of comparative literature can shed light on the potentials of archetypal criticism to reveal the similarities in Indo-European epics which share common myths and archetypes.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Esmail Fasih are among the greatest writers in French and Persian literatures. The language of Celine and his cynical view of man attracted the attention of many writers in different countries around the world to his works, especially to Journey to the End of the Night. In Iran, the influence of Céline on Persian authors, such as Jalal Al-e Ahmad, has been studied. This article aims to conduct a comparative study between Céline's Journey to the End of the Night and Fasih's Winter 62. In this article, the theme of war has been studied in the two works based on the principles of American school and applying François Jost's theory of "similarities without communication" in Comparative Literature. The findings of this study indicate that these two novels match each other in some aspects such as the satirical language, presence of the same hero in all novels, narrative type, symbolic titles, etc. Appreciation of the martyrs, martyrdom and sacrifice for the homeland are the differences between the two stories. The Iranian novel is rooted in the IslamicIranian culture.

Sometimes works are found in the fictional literature of different nations which are similar to each other not only in terms of subject matter and theme but also in terms of structure and narrative style. Undoubtedly, in the interaction and dialogues among the literary works of different countries, those works that have been warmly received by lowbrows and highbrows alike, and move along the literary, intellectual and social development of a nation are of particular significance and can form literary trends. The present study compares the genre of fantasy in two works within the domain of children's literature: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and Halle Tiny in the Land of the Giants by Shokuh Qasemnia. This research demonstrates the similarities and differences in the Iranian and western genre of fantasy. The research methodology is borrowed from Siegbert Solomon Prawer's book, Introduction to Comparative Literary Studies. His approach to comparative studies helps provide an appropriate ground for the recognition of national and foreign literatures. The basic form of fantasy in the two works are based on imagination, magic and supernatural powers traceable in paradoxical literature, mythology, popular and folk literature, old legends and fairy tales. In accordance with the various questions that arise in different intellectual and cultural discourses, these basic forms adopt particular meanings and functions to represent the dominant discourse.The result indicates that in the Halle Tiny, we deal with the retelling of folktales and old legends, while in Alice in Wonderland we encounter a futuristic perspective constructed by the collective imagination of the Western spirit that often tends to take refuge in an idealized and unreal world.