Reading the Twofold Functions of Nature in Kurdish Pastoral Stories: The Case Study of Four Stories in Khaomirabad Distract of Marivan City

Pastoral literature is one of the literary genres that have been neglected, while both the formal and informal genres of pastoral literature deserve a serious attention of researchers with literary and interdisciplinary approaches. Pastoral stories are part of a huge system of informal pastoral literature. So far, no determined research has been done in Iran with the approach of analysing pastoral themes on these texts. Nature has a special state in pastoral literature. The available research intends to investigate the twofold functions of nature (sanctity-magical function and the function of advancing the narrative) in the informal pastoral stories of Khaomirabad region of Marivan city. To achieve this, the approach of content analysis has been used with insinuating the structural analysis of stories, and the special place of outstanding natural elements such as mountains, caves, water, fire, springs, stones, and plants in stories have been investigated. The results of the research show that first, natural elements and places in pastoral stories are the cross point of the most important events of the story; secondly, the presence of magical and sanctity images in the description of nature evokes a positive image based on the necessity of respecting nature and the ecosystem in the reader. Thirdly, the structured schema in the mind of the reader and the audience provides an appropriate condition for generalizing the holiness and supernatural power of the natural elements described in the story to the physical world around him.