Historical Narrative of Yazdgerd I and Bahrām V Based on some Components of Critical Discourse Analysis

Emergence of the mythical figure of Bahrām، twenty years after the peaceful kingship of Yazdgerd، is noticeable as a strategic action to fill the discursive gap in Zoroasterian society. The narrative tradition of Zoroasterianism places Bahrām in the discursive knot، and makes elements like courage، inland and outland wars to turn around him. This article intends to perform a critical analysis of “Death of Yazdgerd” and “Snatching the crown between two lions” based on three reports named Tārikh-e Tabari، Tārikh-e Sa’ālebi، and the historical part of Ferdowsi’s Shāhname. The theoretical basis of the research is a combination of Fairclough and Laclau and Mouffe’s reading of critical discourse analysis، and the goal of the study is to reveal the ideological infra-structures and power relations in the discursive order of the narrators and narratives. The comparison between the two narratives related to Yazdgerd and Bahrām implies the dominance of the ideological narrative on reformulation of religious myths and their role on historical configuration of the texts