نامه فرهنگستان
سال یازدهم شماره 3 (پاییز 1389)

The early 20th century was a crucial time in the history of Persian literature. The “Literary Revolution”, which gave rise to modern poetry in Iran, was carried out by two antagonist groups of poets. The “Conservative” poets headed by Malek al-Sho‘arā Bahār and the “Progressivist” poets directed by Taqi Raf‘at, both claimed to reform the Iranian literary tradition. To do so, both parties incorporated a significant portion of the European heritage into their own. This is when the chahārpāreh was first developed: a succession of quatrains unknown to the Persian tradition. It embodied a new poetic form altogether.

During the past two centuries comparative literature has gone through many crises, one after the other. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to come up with a crystal-clear definition of comparative literature on which all comparatists would agree. In fact, it should be kept in mind that there is no single definition of comparative literature, but rather definitions. One can offer two main reasons for this disagreement. First, the name of the discipline has been a misnomer and has, consequently, misled many novices in almost all parts of the world. Secondly, in the case of comparative literature in Iran, there has been a big gap between the traditional and modern trends of comparative literature. This gap has created a theoretical vacuum which has further added to the vulnerability of comparative literature studies in Iran. This paper aims to demonstrate some of the major misunderstandings of this discipline in the Iranian academe.

After Khalīl ibn Ahmad (d. 786), scholars of Arabic prosody mostly followed his approach. However, Ibn-Hammād Jowharī (d. 1003), who wrote Arud al-Waraqa, disagreed with Khalīl seriously. Although Jowharī’s prosodic approach was not welcomed by the scholars of Arabic prosody – due to the fact that Khalīl’s approach was more systematic than his – it seems that he has deeply influenced the foundations of Persian prosody. The present paper deals with the influence of Arud al-Waraqa on Persian prosody.

India, with one official and twenty two important, but yet unofficial languages and various literatures, has endured a long and windy road in comparative literature especially after the colonial era. In this article I will look at the vigorous history and the foundation of Jadavpur University, where the department of comparative literature started in 1956 for the first time in India. I will then review the social, political, academic and literary conditions of that period. I will also examine how this new field of study was formed and solidified. To trace the history of Jadavpur University is to trace a part of India’s freedom movement in many aspects especially in literature

René Wellek (1903, Vienna -1995, Hamden, Connecticut) was a Czech- American comparative literary critic. From World War II on, Wellek lived in America. He taught first at the University of Iowa, where he taught for seven years, and then, beginning in 1946, at Yale University, where he established and chaired a department of comparative literature. In the United States, he was widely regarded as a founder of the study of comparative literature in the United States. With Austin Warren, Wellek published a landmark volume entitled Theory of Literature, one of the first works to systematize literary theory

A type of old Russian epic poems, bylinas originated between the 11th and 16th century and were transmitted orally. This happened in the late 18th century when they were gathered and transcribed as written texts. Some Russian scholars (V. Stasov, V. Miller) in 19th century mentioned the similarities in the structure and content of the Russian bylinas with the oriental epic poems, especially with Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. This point of view, however, was to be challenged by some other scholars, such as S. Buslaev, who did not believe in the direct impact of the Eastern epic poems on Russian bylinas. The aim of this paper is to present some basic information about this Russian epic genre and the famous bylina Ilyia’s Quarrel with Prince Vladimir and also to compare and analyze one of the common themes both Russian bylinas and Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh share: the opposition between the epic heroes and princes.