Morphological Analysis of Siddha Nasafi’sBaharieh (based on Propp’s theory)

Siddha Nasafi’s Baharieh (1636- 1705) is an allegorical story of fable kind. This work which is similar to Panchatantra’s stories is capable of being adjusted with contemporary literary theories such as Propp’s morphology theory. Unlike content analysis, in formal- structural analysis the story is analyzed through form and structure and the content and subject are not very much considered. Lots of folk tales can be studied using this approach. Propp’s structural approach is a suitable method to analyze stories. Because of proximity and sequence of characters’ actions, Baharieh can also be analyzed using the structural approach. Among 31 narrative units of Propp’s theory, the units of “villainy”, “struggle”, “false claim” and “reconciliation between parties” have been used more in Baharieh and hence are similar to many of Panchatantra’s stories. On the other hand, at the end of Baharieh, the debate of “lion and ant” can be compared to ParvinEtesami’s debates of “ant and snake” and “ant and nightingale” that not only have similar contents, but also share common points according to structural theory of Propp. Like Siddha Nasafi’sBaharieh, in these two debates, narrative elements of “villainy”, “struggle” and finally “victory of protagonist against antagonist” have been proposed.