فصلنامه ادبیات عرفانی و اسطوره شناختی
سال چهاردهم شماره 52 (پاییز 1397)

Abhar al-āšqīn is a collection of Rūzbahān Baqalī Šīrāzī’s thoughts about love. Because of the great importance of this mystical treatise in Persian literature, it has had great influence on its later works including masnavi of Sefat al- āšqīn, composed by Helali Joghtaei. Since these two books have a lot of similarities in content and subject matter, they can be studied based on Genette's Intertextuality theory that suggests three types of "explicitly deliberate", "hidden-deliberate," and "implicit" links between texts. The findings of the present research show that many themes related to love, such as eternality and the mutuality of love and its obstacles are presented in both books. The intertextuality relationship between them shows that Sefat al- āšqīn is not a mere imitation of Abhar al- āšqīn without any creativity. By using descriptive-analytic method, the present article tries to show the common themes about love in both books.

In humanities, the problem solving and how to deal with problems have many advantages. In today's world of technology and communications, creativity or the ability to generate ideas and provide new and more efficient solutions are seriously discussed by scholars. Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī has also discussed this issue in Masnavī-ye Ma’navī. Rūmī can be considered as a mystic who understands the depth of human affairs and seeks to analyze them. The findings of the research show that Rūmī, while expressing purely mystical discussions in the form of anecdotes, uses some methods to solve problems that human beings face in their everyday lives. The article tries to study Masnavī-ye Ma’navī to find these methods in humanities. In this way, we get acquainted with the intellectual achievements of Rūmī when dealing the human issues and behavioral problems.

Myths depict interpretations of ancient man about phenomena. Myth is a kind of discourse that its deep-structure is fact and story is its sub-structure. Based on their ideology and the socio-historical conditions of their time, contemporary writers endeavor to revive myths. The revival of myth in the literary works is a result of socio-philosophical visions of their writers. To express and envision their views, the contemporary writers use symbolic names and archetypes. In her stories, Mahsa Mohebali, Iranian contemporary writer and novelist, has used myths for narrative, semantic and feminist purposes. By using the analytic-descriptive method and based on psychoanalysis theories, the present article tries to review ways and reasons of recreating the mythical themes in her works. One of Mohebali's works, The Grey Spell (Nefrine Khakestari) is a novel that its characterizations, themes and atmospheres can only be explained with a mythological approach. In the novel, the writer describes the contemporary Tehran space and conditions of a psychiatric patient; she addresses the subject of psychoanalysis and by these ways, the structure of her novel is expressed by the central character of the story. She uses myths and archetypes to search for identity and to defend the rights of women.

Myths, as the outdated religions and lifestyles, are present in individual and collective subconscious and have a deep and long-lasting relationship with literature and art. In fact, myth is a non-historical literature that can be seen in oral and written literature, prose and poetry, epics and so on. Children's literature which is rooted in popular culture and folk literature includes songs, folk tales, anecdotes and stories; the trace of myth can be seen in all of these cases. Folk tales, including delicate and entertaining themes with rhythmic prose and poetry, are part of children's literature. By using library-documentation method, the present article tries to analyze the folk tale "Davidam o davidam" (I ran and ran) and its mythical elements. In this way, the relationship between children's literature and myth is shown.

Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, for the purpose of achieving servitude. In Islamic mysticism, asceticism does not go beyond the framework of the Islamic law (Sharia). To determine the framework and the limits of asceticism in mysticism, we study the views of Attar Neyshaburi, one of the three highlights of mystical literature of Iran. The present article attempts to examine the basic concepts and indexes in asceticism in masnavis of Attar by using analytic method. He refers to chelleh-neshini (worshipping for a forty days period), keeping a vigil, silence, patience and control the passions as the important elements of asceticism and believes that they are the best methods to reach the Truth. Very few references to methods of asceticism in his masnavis reflect the political and social complexities of his time. In his masnavis, the frequency of physical asceticism is higher, because this kind of asceticism is a tool for the self-purification. Attar believes that the true asceticism or jehād al-akbar (the greater war and struggle) is to overcome the carnal soul. According to him, when the sālek (the holy traveler) is annihilated from his selfhood, he is united with God and his carnal soul is curbed.

Soluk (spiritual journey) is one of the most important issues in mysticism. Each mystic has his own interpretation of suluk. One of the most famous Arabic poets is Ibn al-Farez (Umar ibn Alī ibn al-Fārid), 576-632 AH, known as Sultān al-Āshegin, who is a great mystic and a man of letters. Ibn al-Farez has established his mysticism based on love; he continually speaks of divine wine and believes that Love is the most important subject in the world and the greatest motivation for transcendence of man. The present article tries to examine suluk in Ibn al-Farez's works from literary and mystical points of view and to study four stages of "sensual observation", "sensual experience", "direct vision by heart" and "spiritual observation" in his thoughts. The results show that he uses the symbols for exposition of soluk and only Muslim mystics can understand his explanations about symbols.

Logos, a Greek word, literally means “meaning”. Logotherapy that is considered as the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy" puts an emphasis on meaning of man’s life and the search for meaning. According to the principles of Logotherapy, the search for meaning is the main derive during one’s life. The need for meaning is the most humane motive and undeniable fact in human life. Will to meaning is a general orientation that leads to self-realization and self-transcendence. Finding meaning in life is the goal of logotherapy; it reflects responsibility, freedom, and will to meaning and this is Frankl's interpretation of the modern existential analysis. Based on the Viktor Frankl's principle of meaning, the authors of the present article try to analyze the character of Kei Khosro as a self-transcendent individual. Kei Khosro is a character that has established the perfection of his own character based on the concept of will to meaning. In addition to self-knowledge, he tries to achieve his perfection and to fulfill his talents through the concepts such as freedom, choice, responsibility and spirituality.

One of contemporary criticism method is archetypal criticism which is based on the thoughts of Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung. Archetypes are important psychological elements that exist in the human collective unconscious. Tales and myths, as parts of oral literature, include many archetypes. One of the well-known examples of archetypes is mother archetype. The mother archetype manifests itself in real and virtual form with a positive or negative presentation. The aim of present article is to determine the position of the mother archetype in Qesse-hā-ye Mašdī Galīn Xānūm based on Jungian definition of archetype. For this purpose, the tales of this collection are studied and the archetypal samples are extracted and then analyzed. Also, the frequency of the presence of the archetype is determined. The results show that the mother archetype is an important and effective component in Iranian stories; the tales and stories are full of archetypal elements, especially mother archetype and one can analyze Iranian stories according to Jung's theories. So, understanding archetypes can guide to the correct understanding of Iranian stories, their characters and symbols.

Myths are amongst the best elements for comparing different nations. In the passage of time, they have changed their form and their effects can be found on cultural-literary works of different societies. The present article is a comparative study on two myths from two different nationalities: The myth of ‘Zahhāk’ in Iran and the myth of ‘Loki’ in Scandinavia. The aim of this study is to find the similarities between these two mythical evil characters and their fundamental features which have had an influence on the forming process of some characters with the same characteristics in dramatic literature. This study compares the aspects of the myth of ‘Zahhāk’ appeared in a play with the same name by Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi with the aspects of the myth of ‘Loki’ appeared in a play by Henrik Ibsen called The Little Eyolf in the framework of trifunctional hypothesis by George Dumézil. The trifunctional hypothesis by Dumézil benefits from a comparative study of functions and actions; the three basic functions of it are the function of sovereignty, the military function and the function of productivity. By describing the differences and similarities between these two works, the results of the research suggests that the two aforementioned plays, as a reflection of cultural roots of their society, have been in accordance with the trifunctinal hypothesis of George Dumézil.

Surrealism is a school that appeared in France in the twentieth century. It has the principles that most important of them are as follows: dream and imagination, automatic writing, juxtaposition, insanity and magic. Although surrealism was introduced in Europe, its features have been seen in other cultures, especially in Iranian mysticism. It can be said that before the emergence of surrealism in Europe, Iranian Sufis have created valuable works with surrealist themes. There are deep differences between these works and western ones that indicate the originality of Iranian surrealism. Masnavī-ye Ma’navī of Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī has proposed surrealistic themes but they have remarkable differences with Western surrealist ones. The present article attempts to show these differences and similarities. The differences show the primacy and superiority of the Iranian version of surrealism. These differences include Divine grace (Karāmat), magic, the Truth, reality and Divine intoxication.