علی ضیاءالدینی دشتخاکی

The terms self and other have been cast as constituent elements of the human condition. Philosophers like Hegel, Husserl, Kierkegaard, Bakhtin and Levinas have addressed these concepts as social problems, as issues within the society that are also reflected in literature. Sadegh Hedayat’s “The Stray Dog” and Paul Auster’s Timbaktu are two examples from Persian and American literature which show the writers’ preoccupation with the concepts of self and other. An important function of these works is their social function. Pat and Mr. Bones represent a society in which the relation between self and other is constantly constructed and reconstructed. Their actions make the audience think about the social and philosophical implications of the binary opposition of self and other. Sometimes they are the other to the social self and sometimes they are the self which enters into social relations with others. The present study probes into the notions of self and other in “The Stray Dog” and Timbaktu and asks how the texts define and construct the concepts of self and other and how could these constructions be interpreted. It also studies eschatology, altruism and indifference towards the demands of the other in the two texts as it draws a distinction between fear and social anxiety. It also discusses animal rights and the human domination of nature. As submissive characters, both Pat and Mr. Bones are entrapped in the rules and structures of human society. Even when they are rejected by society, they still seek the approval of a domineering power to experience the satisfaction consequent upon hegemony.

This is qualitative and fundamentally theoretical research. The logic that governs the research is deductive; that is, the results have been obtained by comparing extracts from the two texts. Using library sources and using the American school of comparative literature, this research has investigated the different aspects of self and other in “Stray Dog” and Timbuktu.

The present study deals with philosophical perspectives on self and the metaphysical concept of otherness. It also addresses alienation, rationality, power and the rise of modernism against Cartesian philosophy in “The Stray Dog” and Timbaktu. It studies the emergence of self/other binary opposition and modern man’s rejection of Descartes’s concept of subjectivity and his embracing of Hegel’s notion of consciousness, a philosophy that makes allowances for the presence of the other. The binary opposition of self and other is evident in “The Stray Dog” and Timbaktu. In these narratives the opposition between human beings and dogs provides the writers with a fertile ground for investigating the social and philosophical implications of self and other. The confrontation between humans and non-human animals represents the ontological and social dimensions of self and other in the modern world as self–other understanding is a central concept that forms the backbone of social cognition. The study also addresses eschatology in the narratives in terms of the dimension of time and space. The eschatological journey of Pat and Mr. Bones is beyond the realm of comprehension because it is the mysterious separation of the subject/self from society/other. Although both characters move towards annihilation, their journey could be seen as moving toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained. Pat and Mr. Bones are both seeking a Utopian world and a master who would make an ideal world for them. This is the subject’s escape towards the sacred and the transcendental. Both narratives challenge the concept of time and place. According to Auster, Timbuktu is “Where the map of this world ends, that’s where the map of Timbuktu begins” or it is “an oasis of spirits.” (Auster:  2017:61) or “a realm of eternal nothingness” (ibid, 62). It is also described as a place “where no things are nor will ever be. Except me. Except not me. Except eternity” (Ibid, 76). Similarly, in “The Stray Dog”, Pat “did not know why he was running, did not know where he was going, could neither go back nor move forward”. (Hedayat, 2017: 28). The two narratives are caught between the impulses of life and death. That Pat finds peace by separating from the human society and Mr. Bones finds peace in reaching Timbuktu show that both narratives are eschatological chronology: both stories are concerned with the ultimate destiny of the individual and the return to one’s origins. The two texts are similar in many respects. Both writers employ suspense to highlight the outcomes affecting the characters’ fate. Hedayat creates suspense by choosing the word stray to describe the dog and Auster creates semantic ambiguity and suspense by choosing the title Timbuktu and relating it to the other world. In both texts, space becomes time and vice versa. The temporality and spatiality of the two texts is close to Bakhtin’s concept of chronotope. As chronotope has a cognitive meaning and narrative structure, it expresses the style, attitude and ideology governing the narratives. By choosing two non-human animals as major characters, Hedayat and Auster portray and criticize the self through its confrontation with the other.  In both stories, the other becomes a catalyst for the recognition of the social self. In addition, both writes emphasize the interrelationship of the self and the subject as well as the independence. However, in “The Stray Dog” the self is in a destructive relation with the other, while in Timbuktu the self and other complement each other. Both texts address the coexistence of self and other, the ethics of care, animal rights, eschatology and man’s passive attitude towards nature. Both writers have addressed self-other dualism in their other novels. This theme is evident in Sadegh Hedayat’s The Blind Owl and Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions, Moon Palace and Oracle Night. In both texts, the binary of self and other is based on the presence of the self, the presence of the other and the interaction between the self and the other. This self-other dynamic is closely related to Bakhtin’s idea that self is implied dialogically in otherness.

An analysis of the two texts shows that they have many points in common: non-human animals as narrators, narrative suspense, the interrelation between the social self and the subject, symbiosis and social ethics, eschatology, the ethic of care, animal rights and the metaphysical concept of otherness.in both narrative the self is represented in opposition with the other. Both texts suggest interaction between the self and the other and caring for the demands of the other. Otherness is approached as the presence of the self, the presence of the other and the interaction between the self and the other. The dialogical implication of the self in the otherness is Bakhtin’s suggestion for the self/other binary opposition. Through this opposition he comments on hegemony, displacement, abandonment, loneliness, the problematic relation of man and nature, and the expression of pain and suffering. As hegemony designates complete domination, both narratives criticize the way oppressed societies recreates the discourse of power. Hedayat and Auster use the relation between humans and nature and humans and non- human animals to show the dark side of the society. Moreover, both narrative show the distinction between fear and anxiety which, at the narrative level, related to existentialist fears and jouissance.

There are many attitudes towards popular culture. One movement, led by Mathew Arnold, rejects popular culture because it is the culture of working class and will lead to chaos if it is not controlled by the elite. Frankfurt School thinkers also reject popular culture because it is produced by culture industry and imposed on the working class by the capitalist system. The other approach which is based on consensus is inspired by Antonio Gramsci: people are not only made by culture hut also make culture. Postmodernism is another attitude which embraces popular culture. Postmodern thinkers see popular culture as a means of resistance against the status quo. The present study reviews The Window by Fahimeh Rahimi as an example of popular fiction which is deeply influenced by the Victorian literature. Focusing on the dominant sentimentalism of the novel, its stock characters and pretentious language, the dominance of chance in the plot, the unjustified use supernatural elements, repetition and the bourgeois morality of the novel, the study uses the argument of the thinkers of Frankfurt school to show that the novel does not represent a resistance against the ruling system, but invites the reader to accept the status quo by propounding bourgeois morality.

Myths are closely related to social issues.  Social rereading of this relation necessitates a theoretical background in order to explain the relationship between the text and its medium.  The relation between Literature and society is defined according to the sociological parameters of the cultural medium since this medium is the arena where all cultural creations particularly literary ones through different forces cause a cultural action to take place.  Using content analysis and documentary search method, this research seeks to study Kayumars’s myth according to Persian cultural medium.  The results found are as follows: Since mythological tales in Shahnameh are narrated within a historical time span, dealing with myths is considered as a kind of deliberate return to the myths whose most dominant aspect is the social one.  The existence of numerous narratives of Kayumars’s tale within the cultural medium and Ferdowsi’s particular choice of these narratives is indicative of certain social consciousness which is connected to the social Persian medium of Ferdowsi’s time.  In textual structures of kayumars’s myth in Shahnameh there are instances which refer to the religious aspect, social norms of the society of the time and also refer how Ferdowsi had been under the influence of social movements and central powers of his time.

Studying the work of male writers and comparing their discourse and mentality with that of women in their work is one of the most important trends in feminist studies. In the poetry of Ounsi el-Hajj and Ahmad Shamlu, one faces a particular image of women; an image which is sometimes compatible with modern world standards and shows women in the equal status with men. Sometimes, influenced by the historical mentality of two authors, women fall from their modern position to a traditional status.
Based on feminist criticism and the French school of comparative literature, this study compares “Al-Rasoula Be-Shareha Al-Tavil Hata-l Yanabie” by Ounsi el-Hajj and “Aida in the Mirror” by Shamlu. The most important conclusion achieved are: - The two works have a similar entirety, and their poetic expression is masculine which, at times, contradicts the norms of feminism.
- Portraying the female figure in the two works has been influenced by mythological motifs and historical and cultural issues.
- In the some parts of the texts, Ounsi el-Hajj and Shamlu have been influenced by modern social thoughts including western feminism and humanism.

Accreditation to fact and absorption in objectivity , that start with Nima , had a great impact in the moving of contemporary poem , with all its physical specification and inner and the modern poet realize that can collected the compatible components in the semantic wholeness by the narration , and obtained the possible of regularize to scattered elements , and changed the calendar time to ontological time.
In this Article , the poems of Tahere Saffarzade , be checked According to library method and content analysis and comparison and based on Roland Barthes's theory from the perspective of structuralism and the function narrative analyzed in this poems. The most important results obtained of this survey are as follows: - The statistical analyses of the narrative and non- narrative of Saffarzadeh's poetry , shows the poets tendency to narrative expression.
- the accession of notional logical connection and fluid motion, is rated of the features of Saffarzadeh's poems.
- the movement of Saffarzadeh's poems show us that she tries to make a move in the mind of audience,

Among the key Components of Shahnameh, composed by the grate poet Ferdowsi, there are many textual elements that are tied to inter- textual elements, out of the text. This key features are rooted in reflection and representation of social and cultural contexts and backgrounds of this society. This  epresentation mirrors and reflects rituals such as marriage, rite of passage and Initiation, and death. When we return our eyes and direct our attention to the concepts and rituals of death, it makes evident that how a part of construction of this book, is associated with death belief systems which stem from Zoroastrian, Islamic, and Zurvanism roots. Using a descriptiveanalytical methods, this article seeks to investigate relationships between death and the epic poems so this essay concentrates on some stories and narratives of Shahnameh related to death. This approach leads us to awareness of some anthropological knowledge on the topic under discussion. Some results as the achievements of this study, are as follows:- In this book, three aspects of death come in to view: fear of death, death as a reality, and a philosophical-ethical standpoints on death. These three parts come from pre-Islamic and Islamic notions and their combination. - Due to the image of death that is influenced by the notions of time and devilish quality and content of death (death as the function of Ahriman)- evident in this book, emergences of death sometimes is related to the Zoroastrian world views. - In some stories like the story of Siyavoush and Keykhosro, death is connected to the archetype of rebirth that does not come from pre-Islamic and Islamic backgrounds. A dichotomy is present here that embedded in some parts of this book. - In some parts of this book, such as Rostam and Sohrab’s story, death of Sam, death of Faridoun and Iraj, Death of Esfandiyar and will and testament of Anoushirvan, textual elements that are seen, related to inter/external textual elements including burial rituals that lay foundations of anthropology of  oroastrian culture in the pre-Islamic Iran.

The Study of love and its meaning, not as a philosophical, literary or social concept, but as a multidimensional concept, has stretched different aspects of human life, from the adventure of mysterious creation to the mechanical life in today's world, and it has been in the idea of the scholars of the different nations, from Plato and Avicenna to Simon de Beauvoir and Sternberg. For this reason, we recognize love as a motivating category that made created enthusiasm in different layers of human life, and it has been manifesting at the highest level of human mental experience. Among the works in which a specific concept of love is expressed, we can mention The Symposium of Plato and The King and Slave Girl of Mevlana. Each of these two works has showed the metamorphosis of the concept of love and its types. This paper, relying on the relationship between wisdom and philosophy, studies the truth of love, the types of love, and its functions and requirements in these two works. The most important conclusions of this study are that love in the idea of Plato and Mevlana, has an evolutionary path. The base of Plato and Mevlana’s attitude to love is philosophical, and according to this view they have studied the nature and essence of love, and then they classified the categories of love based on its quality. In the wisdom view to the concept of love, there is a significant relationship between the higher and lower of its types. Mevlana is influenced by ancient Greek philosophy in the story of The King and Slave Girl.

Some of the traditional and archetypal features present in a text serve to form a link between the text and other texts and establish a relationship between the mind and society and help us to extend the conceptual world of the text by extending its literary images. Though it is true that myths, symbols and archetypes, together with other discourse elements, establish a relationship between the text and the reader, they are independent textual features that uncover the history of human life on earth. The systematic nature of myths and archetypal symbols sometimes remind us of the devils and infernal world and at other times remind us of gods and results in man’s thinking of heaven and the heavenly world. Owing to the fact that in the course of history archetypes have been mixed with man’s experiences, there have always been relationships between archetypes and man’s life on earth.By focusing on the issue of meaning in archetypal criticism, an attempt is made in the present study to enter the domain of the relationship between this kind of literary criticism and eschatology and by studying three groups of imagers in archetypal systems discover the relationship between eschatology and this kind of literary criticis.

Part of what we know as the heritage of Iran and India has originated from the Indo-Iranian culture, and this heritage belongs to the East and the common life of Indo –Iranians in the past. We can consider the similarities between Arash-e Kamangir in Iranian mythology and Vishnu in Indian mythology as an original example in this case. In this research, we try to show the characters of Arash-e Kamangir, in the ancient, middle and Islamic periods, according to the comparative method in the French School and the method of content analysis. The results of the research show that Arash and Vishnu are two myths that have a common origin, and consequently, they have vast and widespread common aspects; and in making of mythological character, the subject of the attack between Good and Evil has a special place in the two cultures. Being warrior god of rain in creating the myths like Arash and Vishnu; being bodily and their connection with natural elements and heavenly realms are the other results obtained in this study.