The Contribution of Punctuation Marks in Persian Postmodern Fiction

Postmodern fiction through holding playful discussions about language and act of story-telling diminishes the authority of metanarrative. Metanarrative is a significative and cognitive system in search of the Ultimate Truth that tries to claim its dominance on all texts including literature. In contrast, the postmodern literature uses many techniques to reject this dominance by annihilating the order and architecture of the metanarratives. Various forms of the language games and anomalisms such as deviating the verbal and visual norms are among these techniques. This study concentrates on the unconventional use of punctuation marks as one of the stylistic norm deviating devices in Persian postmodern fictions. The evidence is sought in twenty six stories from Iranian writers in the two last decades.