فصلنامه نقد ادبی
پیاپی 55 (پاییز 1400)

Sufi narratives are ever susceptive to psychoanalytic studies per the extent of their detailed experiences and also their main function, which is to incite a kind of “mystical experience” in the reader. Accordingly, the present study attempts to introduce a novel classification of these narratives in line with the psychoanalytic concept of “transference”. In this classification, the selection of Sufi narratives and the anecdotes of Asrār-al-Tawḥid in particular, are regarded as a macro-narrative that depicts the process of psychotherapy with a focus on the concept of transference. Each micro-narrative could be categorized under one of the stages involved within the process. In this point of view, the function of most of the anecdotal narratives (Taḍkiras) is apt to be seen as corresponding to one or a number of these stages. In effect, the reader of a single text encounters all these stages in different ways, albeit in a non-linear process, by the end of the reading. These stages, defined by reference to Freudʼs views and his structuralist follower, Lacan's, are listed as: 1) establishing the subject supposed to know, 2) resistance/denial, 3) the random object of the sign, and 4) mission. Yet, the choice of Asrār al-Tawḥid in this case study has been due to several reasons, including the inclusion of morer diverse narratives than other anecdotal narratives as well as the profound impact of this text on the later Sufi narratives.

Following the foundations of the flow of modernity and the positivism paradigm on the level of human life, moral crises in various dimensions and social anomalies were formed in the epistemology of relativism in the Western world. Consequently, its intellectual foundations of thought were strongly criticized by rival schools, even in the West itself. On this basis, the leaders of the capitalist system, in order to cover their weaknesses, and to consolidate their epistemic foundations with another element called mysticism, have tried to consolidate their attitude and worldview. In this research by adopting a descriptive-analytical method based on interpretive approach, ten works from the most prominent mystical-educational novels of the world (blade edge, Siddhartha, Jonathan Sea Bird, Magic Mountain, World Sophie, and Warrior of the Light, Little Prince, and Three Thousands with Murray, Mystery and Heavenly Prophecy) have been selected to be investigated. The findings of the study indicated that the themes and content of selected works can be categorized in two opposing groups. The first group is critical to the capitalist system and tries to provide a way out of the crisis, while the other defends the capitalist system and its cultural and social values, which led to the formation of mystical and quasi-mystical works in the West.

Ever since Brian McHale emphasized the modern epistemological and ontological element in the separation of the modern novel from the postmodern novel, the subject of the dominant element has been considered in most postmodern research. McHale believed that in modern novels the dominant element is epistemological issues. Postmodern novels, on the other hand, pay more attention to ontological issues. Epistemology is a part of philosophical knowledge that has gained special importance during the last three centuries and its subject is the study of the issue of cognition and its characteristics. McHale believed that modern novels address questions in both content and structure that revolve around the issue of cognition. Questions such as how is cognition achieved? Where is the scope of awareness? What is the structure of knowledge? The novel "The Great Magician's Conversation with the Queen of the Colorful Islands" tells the story of a day in the life of a teenager named Rahi who becomes a guest of a family that has lost its child. In this work, the author has made the subject of cognition the subject of narration both in content and structure. The present study has used a descriptive-analytical method to study the dominant epistemological element in this novel. The results show that in this work, Khanian has examined the characteristics, conditions and scope of cognition by using approaches such as the function of linguistic signs in the matter of consciousness, the issue of intentionality and the subject of dynamics in consciousness.

In the present study, we have set out to depict the relationship of mythical and modern Iranian stories from the perspective of the philosophy of Art. Hegel, in his idealistic formation of the history of philosophy of Art, showed that in the primary stages of civilization, Art was the outcome of the connection of “absolute” and “essence.” As a result, Art has failed to show absolute unity with “absolute.” Along the same line, Heidegger and Lukács considered the distance between Art and “essence” as a sign of decline. Meanwhile, the members of the Frankfurt School, put forward new ideas in the Hegelian context of the time; they demonstrated that modern Art and literature, are moving away from reality and attempted to approach “essence,” “universal,” and “unity.” In modernist stories, employing myth is one way to establish a relationship between “unity” and “universal” and so we experience deformation and disintegration of the contemporary world, we witness a flashback, a mythical unity in the shape of formal avant-gardism. From the same perspective, Hedayat and Golshiri are main representatives of two fundamental breaks in modern Iranian stories from 1300 to 1357. Along with modern deformation of the contemporaneous forms, they included flashbacks and Iranian myths, in the form of transformation and deconstruction, in their stories. The results indicated that these two authors, in a dialectical fashion, depicted both the spirit of modernity and the need for historical rereading and representation.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the sub-worlds in Werth's Text Worlds Theory (1999) based on Cognitive Poetics Approach. Upon analysis, the authors showed that up to what extent the writer of Blind owl has used the sub-worlds including deictic, attitudinal, and epistemic. The methodological nature of this qualitative research is descriptive-analytic. It should be noted that all the clauses have been examined. But due to the limitation of the paper volume, in only 20 clauses of this story, the three sub-worlds have been analyzed as one of the semantic layers in Werth's Text Worlds Theory. The authors sought to illustrate the representation of the three sub-worlds in Blind owl and the way the writer has used these three layers in the story. The findings indicated that the epistemic sub-world has been used significantly more than other two sub-worlds, i.e. deictic and attitudinal. Also, the results showed that most of the clauses are narrative and discursive, and the epistemic sub-world has been reflected widely in this story.

The present article reviews the book “National Identity in the Folk Tales of the Safavid Period” by Mohammad Hanif. In the introduction to this 317-page book, the author claims that the main purpose of research is to find different aspects of Iranian national identity in Safavid folk tales and then claims that after examining the issue of identity, the author will try to study the texts.  Answer questions about identity. Mohammad Hanif has well understood the issue of the importance of identity in the Safavid era and its connection with the stories of this period and tries to represent this issue in the book National Identity in the folk tales of the Safavid period. But there are fundamental flaws in his work, four of the most important of which will be mentioned in the aricle.