Genre Frequency in Iranian " Maktabkhaneh" Literature

The folk literature is part of the culture of people that conveys their imagination, feelings, desires, and thoughts from one generation to another and represents the ethical and aesthetic criteria of a nation through different eras. In fact, it is difficult or impossible to understand and study the literary qualities of societies across history without understanding and examining their folk literature. Therefore, research on the rich treasures of Iranian folk and oral literature is of particular importance. This research aims at classifying the prominent works of Iranian folk literature into some limited specific groups according to the content and themes, and determining their genres. In order to determine the genre of Seventy Stories in "Iranian Maktabkhanei Literature" by Hassan Zolfaghari and Mahboubeh Heidari, each story has been examined in terms of three variables: content and theme, tone, and presentation. The results show that this kind of literature is mostly identifiable as belonging to didactic genre while the genres of epic and lyric have almost the same frequency. Also, the role of each sub-factor in making this genre effective is expressed separately.