Implied Reader, a criterion for choosing texts for rewriting ( a study of the implied reader in Kalīla wa Dimnaon Aidan Chambers’s Theory) )

In the corpus of Persian Classical literature, Kalīla wa Dimna is one of the texts which have drawn a vast amount of interest on re-writers’ side and many of its tales have been re-written. The reason for this appeal, as well as an answer to the question whether or not this text is a proper fit for children can be sought with resort to the theory of ‘implied reader’. Recognizing the implied reader of a classical text can serve as a criterion for re-writing that text and aid re-writers to pick the proper text to re-write for children. This article figures out the implied reader in Kalīla wa Dimna using Aidan Chambers’s theory along with an analytical-descriptive method. A comprehensive look at the implied reader in Kalīla wa Dimna with an emphasis on the relationship between the four elements of this theory proves that the three elements of ‘style’, (with regard to new questions posed about it), ‘partiality’ (considering the absence of the child character) and ‘point of view’ (with an emphasis on the decisive role of ‘dialogue’) in Kalīla wa Dimna are more salient and more fulfilled compared to ‘empty space’. An all-encompassing view could tell that although the amount and the quality of the presence of the four elements of the implied reader are not equal and similar, but differ from modern children’s fictions, still there are signs of the writer’s attention to the taste, comprehension, and needs of the low-aged reader that provide the text with qualifications for being rewritten. Mindful of the elements that show the implied reader of a text is a child, they can maintain and enhance these elements to make their rewritings more successful. Keywords: Implied Reader; Kalīla wa Dimna; Re-writing; Aidan Chambers