فهرست مطالب maryam sultan beyad

The agency of literature is one of the keywords of New Historicism. New historicists believe that literature is not simply a product of history; it actively makes history. History, power discourses, marginalized parts of society, and the mutual relationship between literature and culture are central concerns in new historicism. Both Ferdowsi and Shakespeare, although from two diverse cultures and six centuries apart from each other, their works share similar characteristics seen from a historical and literary perspective. Ferdowsi was contemporary with the Sāmānids age of reviving the Persian language and culture after a long period of repression. Shakespeare also lived during the Renaissance age of change in beliefs, views, and worldviews. In addition, challenging the dominant discourses of power and cultural clichés, they created new outlooks towards women in their respective culture. Women who were so far voiceless and marginalized during the times, now get an active presence in their works. The passive, silent Persian woman, kept marginalized for centuries, has an active role and presence in the Shahnameh. Silent and obedient women considered sinful during Shakespeare’s era, have a voice and dynamic presence in his plays. This study tries to depict women’s dynamic personalities both in their contemporary societies and selected literary works. By examining the dominant discourses regarding women, reading their contemporary texts, and analyzing the role of women in their literary works, it is found that both writers in the selected works had different viewpoints towards women compared to the dominant discourses of their time.

To present a democratic reading of The Qur’an, Derrida introduces it as a book of hospitality and unconditional forgiveness. However, he considers The Prophet (PBUH) an exemption from this rule of hospitality. His reading of The Qur’an has not yet been examined by the scholars. The aim of this study is to investigate the reason for Derrida’s reading of The Qur'an and its separation from The Prophet (PBUH). In this descriptive-analytical- comparative method, the concepts considered by Derrida in the text of The Qur'an are examined and the epistemological status of The Prophet is analyzed on the base of the text itself. In this regard, "ontological" reading of the text of The Qur'an is used, which considers the text independent of the reader and writer. This reading is comparable to Derrida’s “deconstructive” reading since deconstruction emerged from ontological approach. This approach is similar to Allameh Tabatabai’s “Quran to Qur’an” approach which is suitable for Qur’anic studies. To avoid reducing the text of The holy Qur’an to a literary text the findings of the study in compared with the learned exegesis of Ayatollah Javadi Amuli. The findings of this study demonstrates that Derrida has ignored evidences in the text contradicting his reading, and as a result he has found the actions of The Prophet (PBUH) contrary to The Qur’an.

Folk narratives play an influential role in shaping the identity of the female subject in society, so that the cultural values ​​of the community, largely defined by the prevailing cultural discourse, are reflected through what Foucault calls the "regime of truth". This, in turn, defines the teachings of system of truth for the community through the folk narratives. This paper aims to, first, introduce two folk narratives of the Khorasan region called The Stone Woman and Zohreh: The Dumb Girl in a novel by Yasmin Crowther named The Saffron Kitchen. These two folk tales are written in English for the readers and represent the image of female subject echoed in Iranian folk narratives. This representation also echoes the dominant discourse, and patriarchal cultural hegemony in folk narratives. This investigation, then, examines how the social reflection of the creation of women identity can influence the identity of the female subject. Contemporary female writers have also put emphasize on challenging this hegemony and have constructed a new identity by generating a transnational cultural space. This study explores a novel of the Iranian diasporic literature, in which folk literature is reflected as a prelude to reflecting cultural hegemony, attempting to recall the role of folk literature in reflecting how traditional identity was formed and put forth the cultural "liminal space" for constructing a new female identity. The findings show that the female subject can be independently shaped, regardless of the supremacy of the cultural hegemony, and have a voice to be heard.