The Study of Satire in Three Persian Mock Epics through Identification of Discursive and Semantic Incongruities

Satire has always shed new light upon various social, historical, political, artistic and literary issues. Mock epic is one of the most innovative comedic forms. It combines satirical and epic discourses. In the Mongol and the Timurid reigns, artists and writers, being afraid of persecution and severe penalties of direct criticism of the ruling system and their plunders, wars and martial nature, used mock epics with non-human characters. “The Mouse and the Cat”, “Moza’far and Baghra”, and “Souf and Kamkha” are three of the most famous mock epics in the pre-constitutional period of the Persian poetry. These works rely more on epic forms and motifs than the post-constitutional mock epics, and as a result, create a more direct incongruity between the comedic and epic discourses. The aforementioned pre-constitutional mock epics abide more by the conventions of mock epics, and therefore, maintain the direct and stark incongruity between two discourses. Generally speaking, incongruities – and the ways they interact and intermingle - make the bases of any successful satirical genre, and, as a result, scholarly studies of satire need to identify the existence of such incongruities in their surveys of any form of satire. Through its descriptive-analytic research methodology, the present study identifies discursive and semantic incongruities as the key elements of the aforementioned mock epics. In identifying discursive incongruities, epic motifs and forms, the epic impact of the Shahnameh, and heroism and antiheroism are surveyed. Through introducing the discursive incongruities, satirists discuss symbolically the shortcomings of their contemporary societies. Through reference to some epic characters and events from the Shahnameh, the surreal affinities of the aforementioned mock epics are moderated, and therefore, their contemporary social concern is focalized. In identifying semantic incongruities, literary hyperboles and understatements are used, and truth is presented comprehensively. Such comprehensive and variegated presentation of truth facilitates the writers’ indirect criticism of the dominant power relations and structures, and the social values such relations and structures have defined.