The Traces of Political Modernity in Amir-Arsalan

The story of Amir-Arsalan is one of the most important folk tales of the Qajar period. This story, which was written and narrated directly for Nasser al-Din, can be a good example for analyzing the discourse of the Qajar era. In the Qajar period, despite the deposition of the discourse of tradition in Iranian society, gradually with the influence of the presuppositions of modernity, the discourse of modernity emerged. In this research, we have examined the story of Amir Arsalan from the perspective of the discourse of modernity as well as the discourse struggle between tradition and modernity. The research is based on one of the recurring propositions of the discourse of modernity in the political sphere, "consultation is decisive." Using the method of discourse analysis, we have examined the parts of the text that have been formed based on this proposition. We have also referred to cases in which the discourse of tradition has been meaningful while examining the discourse of modernity in the text.