پژوهشنامه ادبیات داستانی
سال یکم شماره 2 (بهار 1392)

In the 2nd half of the 20th century, story as a structure in language excited the attention of many literary scholars. Analyzing the structure of the myth, Claude Levi-Strauss proved that it is similar in this with language. And after discovering a set of similar correspondences in sentence and narrative, Roland Barthes claimed that discourse, too, can be analyzed structurally. He argued that a narrative is the outcome of the relations among its "actants" who are no longer considered as independent psychological entities but whose existence is the result of their relations with the other actants. In this stage, the correspondence of Sussurian linguistics with mythological ideas of Levi-Strauss on the one hand, and their agreement with narratological theories of Barthes on the other, that is, with the applicability of these principles in the analysis of literature, grounded the cancellation of traditional "frames of intelligibility" and the establishment of new frames of thought. And Tzvetan Todorov described an "absolute cause" in the typical modern narrative which is always absent from it, but which changes it to a space for a perpetual search of meaning. Yet, along with these improvements in structural narratologies, Jonathan Culler focused his attention on the production of meaning in novels. From the eye of Culler, it is via reading as an interpretive analysis that a novel produces meaning. With a view of encouraging the literary scholars to structurally analyze the Persian narrative, the present paper will attempt to provide an analysis of these methodologies. Also, for a sample work in structural analysis of fiction, Houshang Golshiri's "Naghagh-e Baghani" will be analyzed on the basis of Culler's structuralism.

The term”Maqameh” means telling a story in a meeting or party. However, in professional tongue it refers to a certain kind of tale a main goal of which is to show verbal and semantic artifice. This renders the maqameh an interesting field of research for its narrative principles. The hero of a maqameh appears in the text of a tale, but after some time he disappears from the scene of that tale and appears again in a next tale. The present article tries to analyze the narrative elements in 2 of Hariri's maqamehs: "Ramliyeh" and "Tibiyeh". The researcher has found out that both of these maqamehs were narrated from the point of view of a first-person speaker. In both of them the plot is logical and consistent, while Abu Zaid is also both a symbolic and a dynamic character. His character is recognized often through his conversations, while the character of the literature-lover Hareth is revealed via the descriptions he gives about himself. The perversity of the Iranian society in the reign of the Abbasids, its cruelty and hypocrisy in particular, is a major theme of these maqamehs.

The ancient history and culture of Iran has been a main field of research for many writers in the contemporary times. Among these writers is Hushang Golshiri. In many of his works, in Fifth Innocent and Shazdeh Ehtejab (Prince Ehtejab) in particular, he has paid great attention to history. The main question of the present study is to discuss how Golshiri has dealt with story and myth in his fiction and what his purpose is when he uses such concepts. To achieve this purpose, the writers have systematically examined his most important works. The results of this research show that, in opposition to many historians, the purpose of Golshir is not only to narrate the historical events or the acts and biographies of kings or the history of dynasties, because he often looks upon historical problems of Iran with sharp eyes to recognize them and get enough experience about them. In many of his works, Golshiri attempts to make a formula on the basis of an entirety of a past history via which we can understand the events of our present lives. He attempts to make the world of his imagination often on the basis of a synthesis of the narratives of a historical past, and to see the reflections of the present life in the mirror of the history. The imaginary world which Golshiri creates in his fiction is a reflection of the whole of our history. We can take the different elements of this world of imagination for the various roots of our history.

In addition to in the form of couplets, Attar has composed narratives in the form of sonnets. On the whole, he has composed 62 narrative poems in this form. Through an analysis of the structure of these narrative-sonnets, we can learn about Attar's thought and his art of story-telling. A subject in need of investigation in this regard is the scene in time and place in which his stories take place. This is for Attar is a mystic poet, for in his works he always wants to express his mystical teachings, and for in many works of mysticism the scene is of mystical dimensions also. Attar's narrative-sonnets often show the night at their time, which in turn suggests the mystical dimension of his poetry, because night and dawn are, for the poet, the times of revelation and invocation also. And the spacial setting of his narrative-songs is usually places like a tavern, a pub, a divine harem, a doorway of esteem, a mosque, a pagoda, or a convent all of which add to the mystical dimensions of his work.

In the Iranian literature there are many inverted images of women, while the dominant Iranian fiction is typically often the story of a male character. However, in a majority of the Iranian stroies it is often a woman who causes the events to take place. Due to the historical dominance of a patriarchal culture in Iran, our female character is describes but unrealistically, while her image more often than not lacks the womanly experience. However, whenever the women in Iran have found a suitable occasion, they have taken use of literature for the representation of the oppression historically imposed on their gender. Soovashon and Shouhar-e Ahou-Khanom are 2 novels respectively by Simin Daneshvar and Ali-mohammad Afghani. In the former, Daneshvar represents her womanly experiences about the female characters, while in the latter Afghani illustrates his manly outlooks about the males. Through an examination of the position of the female characters in these works of fiction (as representations of the Iranian woman), one can provide an outline of the developments in the women's status in Iran in the last 100 years. To unravel the main demands of our women in the present times, the present article takes it to provide a comparative analysis of these novels in their dealings with the historical development of the women's position in Iran.

"Haftpeikar" is the story of a utopia with which Nezami Ganjei has provided his readers through the application of functions and descriptions of the unique character of Bahram-e Gour. In that collection of poems, there are 19 characters who, with the exception of those in the "heptagon of anecdotes," appear in and disappear from the scene of poems in order to ground the presence in them of Bahram-e Gour. Nezami, who is partly influenced by the passive structure of a traditional society, often uses descriptive language to characterize his figures. While it attempts to shortly discuss "Haftpeikar" in relations with the traditional society, the present research also attempts to describe the creation of these 19 characters in the hands of the sage of Ganjeh. The researcher has found out that in a majority of occasions, to introduce his characters Nezami has used descriptive language which is a language mainly devoted to poetry. However, characterizing Fetneh, Bahram's maid, the poet uses both descriptive and conversational languages. In the present study, the method of research is content analysis and bibliographical examination.

Style is said to be the special mode of speaking in which a writer or poet expresses his or her thoughts and materials. From the ancient times up to now, many divisions and definitions have been provided for the literary style. In the examination of the style of each literary work, it is analyzed not only for the features of its language and thought, but for its literary features also. Among the new and noticeable issues in the contemporary literary currents is the rise of the popular novel which has been closely heeded to and has received the title of "the Best Seller" in the last decade. Therefore, it is essential that we pay closer attention to the analysis of such works. The style in which an author writes about his or her thoughts and themes is among the outstanding features of each work of literature. It shows the world of the author as well as his recognition and his outlook about the world around him. Therefore, the stylistic analyses of the popular novels can help us take a step forward to understand why in the last decades such works of fiction have been so popular. In the last years, Morteza Moaddabpour has been among the most successful writers of popular fiction, and has absorbed the attention of many readers. In the present research, the writers have attempted to analyze the stylistics of 4 of his novels. This study indicates that Moaddabpour is realistic in style. He writes in a simple prose style in which there is no complexity; with the exception of metonymy, he takes use of no rhetorical technique; and he expresses the social and political problems in the lives of the youth in a simple language.