Two Themes of "Water" and "Fire" in "Nocturnal Harmony of Wood Orchestra"

Thematic Criticism is a kind of approach in literary criticism، which was innovated in the 1950s. It is regarded as the prelude of New Criticism. The founder of such a criticism is Gaston Bachelard. Bachelard investigates the unconscious images of the text which have formed out of the imaginary concept of the material. In Bachelard''s opinion، four elements make up man''s fantasy. In the present paper، considering Bachelard''s approach we tried to study two themes of ''water'' and ''fire'' in «Nocturnal Harmony for Wood Orchestra». In this novel، water is the symbol of Death and Life and fire shows images of death and destruction and also punishment. But there are some instances of showing death by water.