An Intertextual and Discourse Approach to the Reading of a Story in Kalīla and Demna

The Ghaznavid era marks one of the important periods of Persian language and literature. Several of the books which were written and translated during this period turned into masterpieces in the field of Persian language and literature and affected many of the texts and books that were written after them. One of such invaluable books is Kalīla and Demna. The author suggests that through following an intertextual and discourse approach to the reading of this ancient book, one can examine its effects on the books which were composed later. In fact, the dialogs in a text reflect the visible and hidden layers of a society at the time of its writing. Following a descriptive-analytic method and based on critical discourse analysis, this study investigates the story of “The Carpenter, his Wife, and her Friends” in Kalīla and Demna in the light of the theory of implied intertextuality. The findings of the study demonstrate that the analysis of the elements of this story can reveal the intertextual ties and dominant dialogs therein and specify its sociological aspects