نامه فرهنگستان
سال شانزدهم شماره 1 (پاییز و زمستان 1396)

The relations between Iran and Greece and the rule of Greeks on Iran had some influences on the culture of the two countries. One of the cases which indicates these bilateral influences of the two cultures is the similarities between the Iranian famous fairy tale of “Ghesse -yi Ah” and the Greek myth of “Psyche and Eros”. The comparative study of these two narrations shows their parallel structures. The structural analysis of this fairy tale and the myth by the aid of Claude Levi- Strauss’s structural method shows their similar mythemes. On the other hand, the infrastructures and symbols of the two narrations denote their relation with the myth of plant god and signify that they reflect the binary opposition of fertility/infertility. Symbols such as tree, snake, grain, and the man’s fertilizing power in the tale, as well as the role of Eros, the god of love, in the Greek myth argue for the interaction between “Ghesse -yi- Ah” and the myth of “Psyche and Eros”.

In recent years, concepts such as space and place in the field of comparative literature have become very important. Among the approaches of comparative literature, one can refer to the geographical criticism and imagology that have been very promising and in line with scientific principles in examining the views of foreign tourists. Of the many itineraries, by writers who have traveled to Persia as tourists or diplomats in different centuries and visited various cities, we can mention To Isfahan (Vers Ispahan, 1904) by the French traveler Pierre Loti who traveled to Iran in the early 20th century. In his book he described different cities of Iran from the south to Isfahan. In this paper, using geographical criticism approach as a multilateral method in describing the city of Shiraz, we have made an attempt to present new aspects of the geographical perspective of this work. The author􀞌s spontaneous look passes all the frontiers of imagination and offers a new different image of reality.

Literary works in a general manner and novel somehow in a particular way are created through the social, political and cultural context with its specific characteristics. A new historicist approach based on the ideas of Stephen Greenblatt and Michel Foucault transcends the traditionalist historian approach that only cares about the text or the new critique approach which surveys the creation of the work only according to the historical and social conditions. In this paper, based on the Greenblatt and Foucault’s new historian approach these topics are evaluated and analyzed: 1) the historical and social conditions and biographies of the two writers and the similarities between them, 2) representation of those terms in both works by the authors, 3) their interaction with other works, 4) style, discourse and power in both works, and 5) identity change. The first three components are the outer elements of the text and the last two, the inner ones.

Comparative literature has always had a close relation with history and fine arts. In addition, studies show that literature and arts, especially painting, in a wide range, had influenced each other throughout the history, and we can significantly see it in postcolonial studies. Postcolonial studies are the most important new fields of studies concerning the culture of developing countries. This field focuses on the relation between culture and imperialism in these countries after the end of the domination of West’s colonization. In this article we talk about the presence of postcolonial school in literature and fine arts in 1960-1970. In this period, the colonized intellectuals, all around the world, demanded justice for human beings by profiting from literature and arts in order to change the biased viewpoints of the West toward them. This means that they tried to rewrite the history for discovering why and how they have been omitted unfairly from it or why the reality of their existence was altered and where their place in the modern world is. This article tries to analyze the Basquiat’s painting, King of the Zulus, by benefiting from the history and also the analytical theories of Homi Bhabha for answering the aforementioned questions.

Linda Hutcheon points to the formation of a new genre in postmodern literature which is called "historiographic metafiction". In this writing method, narrative techniques such as introspection, irony, anachronism, and intertextual references are challenged to ensure the history and feasible narrations replace dominant narrations. This writing apparently supports the thought that the existence and nature of realities and not a reality itself should be accepted, and the term "reality from other's point of view" can be used instead of “unreal”. In reading out mythical history of Iran, Bahram Beyzai in the same way attempts to paraphrase and then recreate the text to crash the strong internal foundation of the story. Beyzai believes that myths do not have a solid form. Beyzai's Three Recitations try to readout three mythohistorical stories. The second recitation is related to Arash. Although the exact historical origin of Arash the Archer is not clear, he has been presented in a two-thousand year period of myth/history of Iranian beliefs and writings. The purpose of this comparative study is to find special literary techniques of historiographic metafiction in Arash recitation. Findings obtained from analysis show that Beyzai has removed mythical aspects of this story by critical political-class point of view and by utilizing postmodern literary tricks and then has given new roles to them through a new narrative arrangement. In this study, the mythical and historical importance of Arash in pre- Islamic writings and its effect on the Islamic era literature is studied after investigating the historical identity of myth in Barthes' semiotic system and postmodern literary features from Hutcheon's point of view, and, after that, Arash's recitation is analyzed by relying on intertextual references, differences in versions of historical resources and utilizing historiographic metafiction narrative techniques.

Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman makes numerous references to many works of art and literature, which function as both hidden and obvious signals and affect the viewers’ understanding of the film. This article intends to investigate some of these references and parallels between Farhadi’s film and other works of art, thus allowing for a more precise understanding of the movie’s themes and an appreciation of the characters’ actions and decisions. Among these works, other than Death of a Salesman, we can note W. Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I. Bergman’s Shame, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, B. Alavi’s Gile Mard [The Man from Gilan], Gh. Sa’edi’s G􀆗v [The Cow], H. Matisse’s paintings, and else. Our objective is to show how the hidden and obvious intertextual relations of the film could affect our readings of it and its central themes and thus our experience of it. In the context of these intertextual relations and references in The Salesman, the central theme of the film can be defined as follows: the contrast between modernity and traditions, and the perplexity of the protagonist confined between contradictory systems and networks of value. The character is involved in a situation where he is determined to act modern, but his environment constantly pushes him back toward traditions, leading to his metamorphosis. This perplexity is amplified, on the one hand, by repetition of the archetype of “the decline of the father” and the absence of any other form of support and guidance and, on the other, by the resonation of a traumatic past and its destructive effects on the future.