Investigating the Functions of Counter - discourse in the Story of Sheikh Sanan

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of counter- discourse in strengthening, consolidating and reconstructing the meaning of a sign or deconstructing the discourse signs of another related discourse. Through explaining the linguistic and semiotic mechanism of the text from counter- discourse viewpoint, this study seeks to examine the ways by which different discourses interact and compete with each other. Furthermore, it attempts to explain the way meaning is produced, transformed, or confirmed by discovering the nodal points of the discourse. Counter-discourse creates a situation in which each discourse interacts with or challenges another discourse and gains confirmation through its support. In the present study, the functions of counter- discourse in shaping signification and the process of meaning-formation have been revisited. The main question of the research is how and by what means the Counter- discourse in Sheikh Sanan story (in Attar’s Mantiq al-Tair) are representing the interactions and competitions between different discourses. For this purpose, the present study, via adopting a descriptive-analytical approach and qualitative discourse analysis method, explains the elements and components that act as counter- discourse in the story and aid the main idea of the story to be supported and expanded. The findings show that this story uses various kinds of counter- discourse such as referential simulation, narration, metaphor, intricacy, delegation, questioning, action suspension, evidentially, actor revival, supernatural wonders or miraculous acts, and anti and transcendence discourses; through which it has supported and affirmed the main discourse of the story.