Functions of Description in Some Contemporary Persian Short Stories

In literary works, narratives and descriptions have always been interconnected in an indistinguishable way. In accordance with narratological studies during last decades, several theories have presented models of various functions of description in different literary works and ascribed a specific form of description to each of the literary genres. Among these genres, the importance of description in realism and naturalism, and its role in developing the events and characters, is irrefutable. This research, aims at applying the theories an literary description to several realist, and naturalist contemporary Persian stories. After studying the history and importance of description in novels, this research tries to explain its role in defining spatio-temporal framework, and the educational and generally aesthetic goals of several Persian short stories. In this regard, stories from Jamalzadeh, Hedayat, Alavi, Al-e-Ahmad, and Choubak have been selected, and different functions of description in these stories have been investigated. The results of the Research show that in the above mentioned authors’ works, description has not been a neutral element, and it doesn’t put a stop to the narrative process, but it helps the development of the story through different ways of camouflaging it. In addition to expressing the behavior and actions of characters, in the stories studied, description occasionally results in the preparation of spatio- temporal framework of the story, and sometimes it turns into a collection of encyclopedic insights and finds an educationa.