نشریه مطالعات ملی
سال چهارم شماره 1 (پیاپی 13، بهار 1382)

Mythical and epical figures continue to live in the religious, cosmological, mythical as well as lingual and literary memory and native perceptions in Iran despite the destructive and anti-civilizational domineering attempts which some times pushed the Iranian society to brink of disintegration. These figures have been intermingled with the new Iranian-Islamic elements and in some cases they have given their own coat to these new elements. A large number of historical, philosophical and literary works of the predecessors underline the persistence of these ancient elements in our historical-cultural and lingual identity. The presence of these elements in the poems of Moulavi underline a fateful cultural-literary and identity-oriented resurrection which began for the first time with the composition of versified and prosaic Shahnamehs and the revival of the Persian literature (particularly from the time of the Samanid dynasty to the era of Ale-Buyid). They indeed consolidate the establishment of the foundations of nationality and continuation of the sense of patriotism and then spread to the arena of gnostic literature, including the poems of Moulavi. Among the manifestations of this cultural-literary resurrection in the works of Moulana one may mention the presence of mythical and epical figures of the ancient poetry like Jam, Keikhosrow, Fereidoun, Rostam Dastan, Eskandar, Khosrow and Shirin, Farhad and Shirin, and Veis and Ramin.

Discourse Analysis is a new branch of the tree of linguistics, which was born only a few decades ago. Nevertheless its spread has been so fast that it has influenced almost all other branches of linguistics. One of the main subjects in discourse analysis is set of principles that linguists are committed to in the dialogue and do not violate them except for special goals. These principles were the first time introduced by Brice and then developed by such discourse analysts as Leech, Brown, and Levison. The present article does not aim to explain and elaborate the principles of modern discourse analysis, rather it tries to clarify that almost all principles existing in discourse analysis that seem to be new have their roots in the rich Persian culture and literature, forwarded by the Persian poets and literature in more than one millennium. Moreover, the author will also allude to some cases in Persian literature and poetry that have not been yet discussed in modern linguistics.

Dialogue or conversation is one of the methods to impart a message which is based on polylogue or plurality. This is vis-a-vis other methods in which there is only one voice which is either the voice of the first person or the narration of the third party and voice of "omniscient". Although a kind of conversation or debate has an old history in the Iranian literature, due to the developments in the modern age, debate reaches its culmination in the poetry of Parvin E'tesami. There are a number of characteristics of dialogue in the debates of this poetess. Another poet who puts forth dialogue in a pleasant method in his poems is Shafii Kadkani. In some of his debates, Kadkani criticizes the condition of the time of Mohammad Reza Shah's rule. There are other poets and literary figures who have composed poems containing dialogue.

Contemporary sociologist and philosopher Jurgen Habermas is among the thinkers who has enjoyed intellectual consistency despite theorization and has always traversed towards the perfection of his ideas. His command of most of the branches of human sciences has made the understanding of his works difficult to the extent that his readers have sometime be enchanted and sometime disenchanted. Dialogue enjoys a special status in Habermas' theorization. The present article is an attempt to study the significance of dialogue and its relationship with other theories of Habermas, including the significance of dialogue in the public sphere or its role in the theory of truth.

The main thrust of this article is to study the experience of  relationship between national and ethnic identities among the youth in Tubriz. Up to what degree are the youth of Tabriz committed to the national identity? Up to what extent are they committed to the ethnic identity and what kind of relationship is perceivable between the two identities? In order to assess national identity in this article, such factors as inclination towards the Persian language and literature, national cultural heritage, political tendencies and religious inclinations have been suited. In order to evaluate ethnic identity, such factors as inclination towards the Turkish language and literature, Turkish music, inclination towards ethnic history and ethnic attachments have been studied. The findings of this research paper indicates that the youth of  Tabriz have stronger inclination towards the national identity, while they enjoy a strong tendency towards ethnic identity as well. They also establish a positive relation between these two collective indentities.

Followers of the Iranian Prophet Zoroaster enjoy a special status among the ethnic communities and religions of Iran, for their birthplace and the birthplace of their prophet is Iran. Therefore, the prosperity and development of this country has always been one of their long-cherished wishes in the past and will remain so in the future. The history of Zoroastrians began in Iran about four thousand years ago and has had its ups and downs during the onslaughts of various communities. In order to safeguard their culture and religion, the Zoroastrians resisted difficulties for centuries and today like in the past they try to preserve their cultural characteristics by observing their festivals and rites and rituals. The present article is an attempt to study the advent and development of Zoroastrian ideas among the Iranians, the role of Prophet Zoroaster in their deeds, and also to introduce some of the Zoroastrian festivals, rites and rituals.