نشریه هنرهای زیبا - هنرهای نمایشی و موسیقی
پیاپی 74 (تابستان 1401)

‘Description’ as a dramatic element in the explanation of actions, events, objects, and special dramatic situations is an important technique in Greek tragedies. These plays base their plots, the hero's actions and speeches on description. Furthermore, description is the way in which the Greek playwrights announce to the audiences, the events of the background plot, pre story and in particular, the offstage events. One of the important kinds of characters who plays a significant role in Greek tragedies is the "anonymous character". Anonymous Character is usually a name for some kind of sub- character who is commonly named with general titles, not with a specific name, such as spade, educator, and nurse. In Greek tragedies, the weight of the drama is based on narrative. Greek playwrights create their plays on the basis of famous stories and adapt the characters into their plays. In this regard, it is notable that there are many characters who are not the main characters and they are so called sub characters. It is important to notice that these characters have a close relationship with the main characters, either the protagonist or the antagonist. The function of these sub-characters has a significant part of developing the plot and it is interesting to notice how they can inform the audience about anything that has occurred on and offstage. Usually, they have an insight into the events and about the pre-story of the drama and the background of the story. These anonymous characters serve to observe many facts about the plot of plays. Since the definition of ‘description’ is a statement that gives details about someone or something; descriptions of anonymous characters also include geographical and historical context of the play. In ancient Greece, playwrights wrote hundreds of plays. But only thirty -one plays have survived that we know of and interestingly most of them have anonymous characters. Their dialogues guide us to search about the settings of the plays and reveal the biography of main characters as well as reveal their aspirations. The purpose of this study is to explore the ways selected tragedies written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides  have moved the plot foreward by descriptive speech of "anonymous characters",. This study focuses on how and by which patterns the "anonymous characters" assist to create the dramatic narrative of tragedy based on Greek mythology. The present research uses a descriptive-analytical method and by classifying different types of descriptions in the anonymous characters’ dialogs. This study concludes that anonymous characters, although they have a sub - role in tragedies, have an important part in developing the dramatic narratives.  Their inclusion in the play includes a wide range of functions, such as encouraging the hero to action, or giving news of the death of main characters or revealing important secrets. These functions are classified in the conclusion section tables of the article. This study can be a useful guide for further studies and research on old and modern plays with a focus on anonymous characters and their functions.

Heroes play a pivotal role in animation. Stories and myths have common structures of archetypes and myths; patterns that are repeated with unlimited variety in literary and artistic works. The hero's journey is one of the theories by which the repetitive structures in different stories can be realized and analyzed. Joseph Campbell is one of the most important and influential writers in the field of mythology. The theoretical basis of Campbell's archetype is based on his understanding of Jung's theories. The purpose of this article is to achieve the application of the archetype of the hero's journey and to retrieve examples of feminism in the narration of Zootopia animation. The theoretical framework of the analysis of this animation is based on the structuralist approach of the hero's journey of Joseph Campbell and the research method is to describe and analyze the visual narrative of this animation. The results indicate that there are many similarities between the story of Zootopia and the archetype of the hero's journey, which is used in the context of current world issues to raise discourses about feminism in the animation media. Based on this discourse, many of the heroic characters of the animation have been reproduced in the last decade. Disney Studios' animations of the last decade focus on female characters and heroes. The company continues its activities for productions centered on female heroes. Zootopia is one of the most successful and influential works of this company, which is trying to show one of its most important products in the field of feminist thought, considering the teachings of the modern world and the transition from modernism to postmodern. Zootopia, winner of the 2016 Academy Award for Best Animation, is also a film with a heroic theme. Told in the form of an animal story or animal allegory, this work tells the story of a girl rabbit named Judy Hopps. Judy is not a princess, unlike many of Walt Disney Studios' stereotypes. She belongs to the middle class and comes from a farming family. The setting of Zootopia is the modern world. In this modern utopian world, animals have evolved and hunter-gatherer animals live together peacefully. Judy Rabbit is a girl who has dreamed of becoming a policeman since childhood. She wants to make the world a better place to live. Judy's childhood is associated with themes such as activity and participation in social affairs, defense of the oppressed against the oppressor, and hunted versus the hunter. In this regard, the efforts of Judy's parents to dissuade her from her modern goals and aspirations are unsuccessful and thus they choose to support Judy's decisions and stand by her. Judy is sincerely striving to achieve her dreams. In this animation, the protagonist goes beyond the ideals of egalitarianism.  Gender-related issues are represented in a more modern perspective in this work. In addition to gender issues, other underlying themes such as racial and social (species) acceptance as well as contemporary issues such as inclusion of all beliefs, creed and habitats have been incorporated

One of the major concerns of music performers worldwide is mastering control over performance anxiety and the prevention of decreased performance ability which is a result of self-interference and psychological pressure. Music is a spontaneous art that happens at the moment. Music performers strive to convey their emotions through musicality and feelings. They only have a single chance to achieve this and have to be able to show their best at the very moment of performance. These constraints will eventually cause performance anxiety, leading to its destructive consequences. A variety of methods have been introduced and studied to different extents over the years for treating and controlling performance anxiety. In Iran, however, this topic has not been studied thoroughly, leading to the absence of the relevant practical field research in the statistical population of music in the country. By analyzing and applying «The Inner Game of Music» -a theory designed to build an increased knowledge and control over performance anxiety-, and collecting data from ten senior undergraduate students of University of Tehran, Faculty of Music, this research is aimed to investigate the effectiveness of mental skills and their potency to facilitate control over self-interferences and performance anxiety. This research was initiated as a result of concerns raised by the students regarding their graduation recitals, which were to be held 18 months after Covid-19 outbreak in Iran, a period of time in which live performances were impossible. A number of virtual performances were organized for these students, and closer discussions and analyses of performance anxiety and possible solutions for gaining control of it had been studied further in the months leading up to their final recitals. The students were guided towards a better understanding of performance anxiety and taught to recognize self-interference through key concepts, ideas, and exercises from the theory of “The Inner Game of Music”. They were asked to fill three questionnaires twice, upon their first and last performance of the semester. The questionnaires were composed by the authors of this article, specifically for this study and was designed to evaluate the nature and intensity of students’ constructive and destructive thoughts and the physical and psychological effects of these thoughts, before, during and after their performances. Students’ ability to manage their performance anxiety in their first and final performances of the semester was then compared using the data gathered through the questionnaires. Analysis of the results obtained from the students’ scores given to each of the topics of constructive and destructive thoughts and their immediate effects after their first and final performances, indicates that the exercises of “Inner Game of Music” and awareness of the impacts of self-interferences in performance has generally increased constructive thoughts and their effects while relatively decreasing destructive thoughts and their consequences. This analysis also shows an overall improvement and more satisfaction of the performers with their performance.          This interdisciplinary field study has demonstrated that mental skills greatly and positively influence the physical skills and performance quality of musicians, reducing fear and performance anxiety, leading to much heightened control over stress.

The microtonal intervals and tuning systems in Iranian classical music, which are different from one case to another, have caused much debate among scholars. The contemporary theories may be divided into two categories: experimental studies which calculate the practical intervals of music performance, and the studies that suggest a theoretical system mainly based on medieval theories and deviation from Pythagorean and Just intonation systems. Both kinds of studies demonstrate a wide range of tolerance in intervals. There are many reasons for these deviations that must be taken into account. First, the paper attempts to investigate tuning systems of Iranian classical music based on models of music proposed by contemporary scholars. To this aim, the study summarizes each theory’s assumptions and conclusions. Then, for a better comparison of the theories, the information is sorted in a table based on minor second (about 80-112 cents), minor neutral second (Mojannab) (about 117-151 cents), major neutral second (Mojannab) (about 139-180 cents), major second (about 180-220 cents), and plus-second intervals––an interval between minor third and major second (about 230-94 cents). In contrast to the scholars’ assumption that neutral second is the most flexible interval, it is illustrated that a wide range of fluctuation (about 20-30 cents) occurs in other intervals. These fluctuations are rooted in the factors which are ignored in most of the theories. Finally, this paper illuminates that the following factors play a prominent role in the flexibility of intervals. a) Acoustical and psycho-acoustical factors: the difference between tone-perception and the real frequency, as well as cultural considerations may affect intervals. Some scholars consider Pythagorean’s pure perfect fifth as a universal preference. Therefore, they extract the intervals based on Pythagoreans’ pure fifths. However, some pieces of evidence reveal that there are many other exceptions, and some of the Iranian classical modes may be considered as exceptions. b) The school and method of performance: the school in which Persian performers choose to play, affects the intervals.c) Modes: the intervals are dependent on the modes in which they are played. For instance, the major second in Mahoor is wider than that of Shur.d) Tonality: to achieve a different color or key character, some performers may use different intervals. For example, D Shure may be performed different from G Shure. e) Historical considerations: by comparing the recordings, it can be concluded that the intervals have changed during time. For example, the old Isfehan’s leading tone to tonic interval is wider than that of the new Isfehan. Besides, new modalities are formed during the past 100 years that have had an impact on the intervals. f) Tone function: similar to many string performers who play the chromatic semitones wider depending on the context, Persian players may perform the same interval differently by considering the resolution.In most cases, the mentioned factors have been ignored by scholars. Therefore, any future attempt to study the practical intervals must take these factors into account. Moreover, a vast number of case studies are required to get reliable results.

The purpose of this article is to examine different cultural factors which are necessary for African Americans to form their own culture and identity against the dominant white class of society in the beginning of the twentieth century in America, as presented in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s come and Gone, and to provide a cultural analysis of this play in the light of the objective and systematic theory of Pierre Bourdieu. The American playwright August Wilson (1945–2005) produced a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes. One of the basic issues which Wilson brings up in his ten plays, written in regard to each decade of the twentieth century, is the struggle of African Americans to construct their culture and consequently their identity in America. In Wilson’s plays, many newly freed African slaves move to the north in order to shape their identity as respectable citizens of great worth. Therefore, they are foreigners in a new and strange habitus, and because they have lost their contact with their past heritage and also do not have access to the social codes through which they could gain power, they search for means through which they could concretize the song they carry within themselves which is their true African heritage. And in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Wilson portrays the socio-historical and economic forces that led to the great migration of African Americans from the South to the North, reminiscent of the biblical exodus of the migration of Israelites. He depicts men and women who try to break themselves form the invisibles chains of slavery and cruelty and search for a new life, prosperity, empowerment, safety, individuality, and of course eventually their collective racial identity). And this play is surveyed in the light of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory. Influenced by great thinkers such as Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Jean Baudrillard among others, Bourdieu’s main concern is with the changing pattern of cultural forms of domination, competition for power and prestige with the aim of revealing and bringing to light the hidden forms of domination that are consciously and unconsciously reproduced in everyday life. Though the subject of Bourdieu’s studies is basically the French society of his time, his methodology and insights are applicable to all societies which are the domains of cultural conflicts. The key terms in Bourdieu’s theory such as culture, different forms of capital, taste, distinction, and habitus provide the ground through which we can diagnose the surface and hidden conflicts in social relations. One of the main advantages of Bourdieu as a social theorist is that he does not exclude the role of history in his studies. It is, finally, argued that without capturing different forms of capital and growing individual tastes and consequently real distinction within a specific habitus, the struggle of these people for structuring their social identity is futile. The significance of the current article is that its discoveries can be extended for the analysis of other dominated cultures throughout the world as well.

Based on the views of some of the most important researchers and historians who have studied in the historical period of Reza Shahi, such as Homayoun Katozian or Mashaallah Ajoudan, during the first Pahlavi regime in Iran tendency to pre-Islamic era of Iran was promoted by the regime as an important indicator of nationalism in order to culturally pave the way for Reza Shahi's modernization. Attention to ancient Iran could provide a basis for people to realize their ancient glory, and Reza Shahi's modernization promised that a return to that glorious past would be possible. Historical drama from the Reza Shahi romantic era flourishes in the history of Iranian dramatic literature. The main approach of historical playwriting in this period is romantic attention to the glorious periods of the past and especially, ancient Iran.Writing in the same period, Mirzadeh Eshqi, in plays such as Rastakhiz-e Shahriaran-e Iran and Ideal-e Dehgani, emphasized a kind of romantic nationalism that relied on the glory of the past but was very different from that of Reza Khan and the prevailing discourse of the time and as a form of discursive resistance challenged the dominant nationalism supported by Reza Khan. Revolving around the key proposition that Mirzadeh Eshqi’s nationalism is of a romantic type, the present study seeks to understand, first, the characteristics of Eshqi’s nationalism in his plays and, then, the ways in which his romantic nationalism acts as a discursive discourse against Reza Shah’s nationalism. Reza Khan expects the intellectuals of his time to follow his view and therefore urges them to write in the Shafaq-e-Sorkh newspaper to confirm this. Mirzadeh Eshghi is one of these thinkers, but in response, he writes a poetic play called Ideal-e Dehgani (1924), during which he claims a kind of literary-political revolution that contradicts Reza Khan's views. Instead of endorsing that view, he proposes Blood Feast, a type of carnival that can be analyzed with Bakhtin's theory of carnival. By proposing the Blood Feast carnival, Eshghi proposes a kind of revolutionary and utopian resistance to the discourse in Rezakhan's power from the dictatorship of the center-oriented. A second kind of dissimilar and antagonistic culture opposes the official culture of Rezakhan, which stands against the perfection, integrity and eternity of that established order and creates a rupture in it. Eshghi, before this, in the Rastakhiz-e Shahriaran-e Iran (1916) with the discourse of ancient nationalism-revolutionary romantic-utopian nationalism that he presents, creates another resistance in the uniform discourse of Reza Shahi's future nationalism and disrupts it. In the mournful carnival that Mirzadeh Eshghi launches in the form of an imaginary dream with the content of a trip to the ruins of ancient Iran, the predecessors of Iran in its ancient splendor, the lack of this greatness and pride in the present era They mourn and finally, the promise of the return of this greatness is given in the future. The present study is a historical-descriptive study, with analyses conducted in the new historicist theoretical framework and data collected through the documentary research method.