نشریه پژوهش های ادبی
پیاپی 17 (پاییز 1386)

Amongst different philosophical thoughts, existentialism has had a special influence on the 20th century literary criticism and it has paved the way for the formation and development of literary theories. Sartre wrote the twentieth century’s most influential manifesto on  literature of faith and commitment entitled “What Is Literature?”, while Heidegger led hermeneutics into a new path. In Heidegger's Hermeneutics, unlike the traditional hermeneutics, the text loses its final meaning. What is so striking is that; these two existentialists, however, had some different and at times opposite viewpoints. This difference can be traced in Sartre’s Descartesian attitude and Heidegger’s anti- Descartesian philosophy.
In this article after pointing to the backgrounds that have led to the two different perspectives within an identical philosophical thought, we survey the statue of the two major philosophers and theoricians of this school-Heidegger and Sartre- in the contemporary literary flow. The Final issue discussed is; how they influenced the Iranian poets, writers and theorists such as; Shamloo, Al-e-Ahmad, Sharia'tti, Khanlari and Dariush Ashuri.

This article seeks to examine the sources of Moses and the Shepherd and similar stories in both Iranian and foreign literature, particularly two scholastic stories influenced by that story, namely Moses and the Mason, and the Shepherd’s Party. Furthermore it takes a structural approach to investigate the story’s elements such as plot, characters, dialog, point of view, narrative, tone and setting, with a focus on Molavi’s storytelling techniques.    The focus of this paper is the structural aspects rather than the content, as the latter deserves a separate study. However, in order to shed light on the story’s structure, certain symbolic and thematic aspects are discussed as much as necessary. A major part of the paper deals with text and source analysis to serve as an introduction to Foruzanfar’s Sources of the Masnavi Stories as well as new findings in the field of story.

Hakim Nezami of Ganja, is the greatest storyteller throughout the history of Persian literature. Not only are the wide variety of his works challenging from an artistic and literary point of view, but also they can be studied from scientifical and sociological aspects. Unfortunately these works have scarcely had the opportunity to be noticed; compared to his stunning literary creations. Yet they reveal other aspects of his potential and power once a close and deep study is devoted to the mentioned works. This article evaluates some medical issues in Nezami’s works, by comparing them with significant ancient medical books. "Qanun" (The Law), "Hedayate Al-Motaalemin fi Teb" (Guide Book for Physicians), and "Al Abnia an Haghayegh al Advia", etc. are some of the books used for this comparative study. The result shows that Nezami had a very serious knowledge of medicine. There is even the possibility that he has gained all this information directly from ancient medical books.

Mowlana in his famous and unique work, Mathnavi, has mentioned different varieties and kinds of wisdom. He has sometimes praised wisdom and sometimes dispraised it. The present paper discusses and expresses different wisdoms in Mathnavi. It also describes the different functions of each type of wisdom along with the feature it enjoys. Then it investigates the reasons for the paise and dispraise of wisdom. Unlike many other experts, the writer of this article believes that the minor wisdom is not essentially dispraised in Mathnavi, despite all its negative consequences. Actually it is part of the major wisdom or at least it holds a share. The minor wisdom, though has a high spiritual trace, is sometimes affected by satanic and worldly desires due to its limitations and some of its characteristics. As a result it loses its connection with the major wisdom. Moreover, people differ in the degree of wisdom they posses. In other words, Mowlana rejects the idea of equality offering some reasons; even though some rhetoricans believe in such equation. God at times bestows wisdom to animals to prove his power and miraculous strength.

This article is about Siavash; one of the most important and  fundamental characters in Shahnameh. He has had the opportunity to encourage goodness and scorn badness in the Iranian national epic; Shahnameh. The narration of Siavash's life does not merely belong to Shahnameh and Ferdowsi, but it is also seen in the legendary history of Iran before and after him too. Therefore the various stages of his life are reflected. Yet Ferdowsi's narration is more comprehensive and complete, compared to the other texts and it enjoys more fictional elements. As a result Siavash's fiction in Shahnameh has become the  fundamental point and other texts like "Tarikh Bale-Ami", "Mojmalo-Tavarikh", "Tarikhe Saa'ealabi", etc have been compared with it; relating both the diffences and common points.

Generosities are the supernatural action done by saints and infallible figures. From long ago,a lot of anecdotes have been narrated about the saints’ generosities. One of the main reasons for this matter is people who were eager for generosity as they realized that stories on generosity coordinate with their wishes. Among other reasons relating to its popularity, we can point to present generosities in form of people’s interesting and alluring convictional stories in patriarches life. Fereidun-Ebne-Ahmad Sepahsalar, who was Mowlana’s disciple and companion for fourty years, has narrated fourty anecdotes about Mowlana’s generosities in his treatise; this part is in the chapter titled as the Generosities.The Study and criticism of these anecdotes indicates that although about a quarter of them lack generosity themes, they possess other features which help writers of this topic significantly. Most of the other anecdotes coordinate with the principles and the criteria of storytelling and literary criticism, regarding both subject and structure. On the other hand, since in Sepahsalar’s treatise principles of realism has been observed, the narrated anecdotes in this treatise are reliable and credible. So on the basis of techniques and principles of story telling,  they possess specific value and significance. Comparing some of Sepahsalar’s anecdotes with the principles of morphology in fairy tales indicates that these anecdotes coordinate with the structure of fairy tales too. These feature  led all of the writers of next generations writing about Rumi to use the anecdotes in Sepahsalars' treatise.

The stories in Mathnavi are full of optimism and hope; to the extend that it can be said Rumi believes that happiness and exuberance are regarded as original and essential issues.As a matter of fact the human spirit is based on hope, while despair, sorrow and misery, and sadness are phenomenal and temporary. This paper is written using the attributive method and reasoning; interpreting all the elements, specially the contents and characterization of the stories. It intends to reveal this concept; that hope fully exists in the depth of Rumi's poetical stories in a manner that one fails to separate them from the essence of these works. Also the pictures in his poetries are full of concepts related to hope and its devices. In addition to the mentioned features, happiness, vitality and avoiding any sorrow is clear-cut in his poetries. Rumi’s view towards nature indicates hope too. Even when he speaks of Autumn, he regards it as rebirth, and resurrection of spirit and finally a preparation stage for Spring. Along with all that, Rumi relates to spring as the re-growth of nature. Despair, sorrow and sadness do not have a considrable share in his poetries.  Studying the external, the internal and also the marginal music of Mathnavi Maanavi reveals that he is the poet of hope. Even abundance of intonation-emphasizing happiness and life in creating rare or new intonation- in Rumi’s Ghazals(sonnets), show a mind having tendency towards innovation, while he regards despair as a means for devastating the mind.