The Incompatibility of Methodology and Theory with the Subject in A Narratological Study of Iranian Folk Tales

With the establishment of the field of Popular Literature in Iranian universities, scholarship in the area of Persian folk tales has accelerated. In this regard, one of the innovative and new approaches is the application of literary theories in reading, investigating and analysing oral and written Iranian folk tales. Maryam Sharifnasab’s A Narratological Study of Iranian Folk Tales can be regarded as one of the newly-founded studies, which has attempted to present a new perspective by integrating structuralist narratological approaches, in particular the ideas of Propp, Chatman, Lintvelt and Gérard Gennette, with the traditional approaches in criticism, i.e., studying the elements of fiction. Given the necessity of critical assessment of academic studies, the present article, following a content-analysis method, has attempted to discuss the incompatibility between Sharifnasab’s theoretical and methodological approach and the subject of her study. The article concludes that despite Sharifnasab’s attempt to read Persian folk tales through structuralist narratological theories and present a comprehensive narrative structure for the folk tales, the prevalence of mistakes in the content of the work as well as theoretical and methodological misconceptions have undermined the achievements of her study.