Investigating the Debate Narrative Pattern of Elahi-Name

Debate is a system based on narration and the triple bases of narration - which according to Claude Bermond is consisted of: explanation of a stable stand, divergence possibility, and divergence impossibility –can be explored and retrieved in debate patterns. Due to the debate’s controversial nature and the possibility that one of the debaters might not be convinced, there’s more space and time to present more reasoning and continual analogies, allegories, and tirades, and hence in the end one of the debaters will overcome the other, the opposition between them is prominent. In classical literature of Iran, as one of the cradles of culture, discourses are debatable, because discourse atmosphere is a monologic. So works which are formatted in a conversational cast are based on the dominance of power. One of these works is “Elahi-Name” by Attar which is going to be investigated in this paper with a descriptive-analytical way. By employing debates in Elahi-Name, Attar shows the veracity of the patriarchal position held by Khalif against his six young sons and it also shows the meagerness of the efforts made against ancient customs in the horizon of Iranian intellectuality. Moreover, by the unconvinced position held by the sons, Attar uses time to prolong the speech and present telling explanations on the veracity of his position and hence achieve his didactical goals in Elahi-Name.