Volume 14, Issue 56 (2021)
LCQ 2021, 14(56): 89-130 |
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Binazir N. Roaming: Lived Experience in Transition and Halt
(The Analysis of Roaming Subject in “I’m probably Lost” and “Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue” Novels). LCQ 2021; 14 (56) :89-130
URL: http://lcq.modares.ac.ir/article-29-57802-en.html
URL: http://lcq.modares.ac.ir/article-29-57802-en.html
Assistant Professor,University Of Guilan , Neginbinazir@yahoo.com
Abstract: (2083 Views)
Roaming is a phenomenon of modern life and experience and also a possibility to be in the city/ street. An existence in halt and an experience in hurry, a paradoxical life of being the viewer and the viewed, of desire to be lost and found, of perception without concentration. City and roaming subject find meaning and identity in interaction, intertwined link and exactness with each other. City gets spatial in subject’s strolls and it is studied and read as text or human body. The present article has dealt with the analysis of two novels; Sara Salar’s “I’m probably Lost” and Sina Dadkhah’s “Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue” from “roaming subject” viewpoint. It shows how city’s components and phenomena such as passages, park statues, streets, etc. are read and narrated by story characters as text and also experienced as the physical in relation to characters’ perspective, regrets, concerns, and memories. City/ Tehran is the pivotal character in both novels which turns into a surreal landscape in daydreaming and imaginative power of stroller parallel to present life and yesterday’s memories. Characters’ roaming whether in afoot roaming case of Saman, Neda and Leila Jahed or in automobile roaming of Hamed Nejat and Gandom, which is a new style of roaming, narrates an unusual and different and a special relation of subjects’ attachment to city/ street.
Extended abstract
According to the perception of the observer in the car, who moves at a higher speed than pedestrians in urban spaces, it can be concluded that the car forms a new kind of urban perception because it shows a city in motion to passengers. The present article analyses the phenomenon of wandering and its semantic-conceptual correlations from the perspective of studies and urban anthropology among the urban novels of the last two decades and has chosen two novels entitled "Man Ehtemālan Gom Shodeh Am" [I’m Probably Lost] by Sara Salar and "Yousefabad, khiābān-e 33" [Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue] by Sina Dadkhah and shows how the city is read as a context, body, and with a focus on characters in wanderings along with the characters' memory-play and lovemaking. All the characters of the story reach this sameness and unique identity with the city in the shelter of wandering in the city/streets, in associations, escapes, representations and disappearances. In tracing the relationship and role of the components and figures of the city (malls, street, coffee shops, parks, sculptures, billboards and advertisements, cars, highways, etc.) with the characters of the story, it is explained how the characters each exist and is identified with their concerns, situations, and longings with a body of the city, in the city, and with the city, and re-read and recreated the city as feminine or masculine in their bodily experiences.
Considering and reflecting on a city as a context, the city appears and becomes a meaningful body. A system of signs and a text opened in front of the eyes of the wandering person that the body and organs of the city are tied, known, read and interpreted to its semantic and spiritual origins. Almost the entire novel “Man Ehtemalan Gom Shodeh Am” takes place in the streets, with Gandom wandering in her car. Tehran in this novel is a context that is rewritten and recreated in signs, magnifications, protrusions, neglects of the presenter / radio reporter and advertisement of large billboards, in parallel motion and in relation to this identity, negative and positive, in the continuation, completion, and Gandom’s current contradiction and her past life. In the novel “Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue”, the body of the city is formed for Neda with the park and its sculptures; sculptures that are the friends of Neda, but with a clear and distinct identity. Neda talks to them; she talks about her childhood, her fears and worries. In the reading of Professor Nejat, Neda’s English Professor, the city is like a human body; a body that surrounds us. In both novels, Tehran is being lived and experienced as a physical body for the wandering characters of the story, a gendered body. Tehran, the most important and pivotal character of both novels, has shared the possibility of a friendly physical body with its wanderers and flows like blood in the veins of all Tehranians. For Hamed Nejat, Tehran is "the grey queen", a feminine and soothing body, and for Neda, it is a masculine and supportive body that embraces the wanderer and hears and accompanies them with their loves, restlessness and loneliness. The wandering and the experience of the city as a physical thing lead to the alignment and similarity of the city and the wanderer. Tehran is a friend, a lover, a beloved and a companion that now its presence and atmosphere are intertwined with the wanderers of the story. Farid Rahdar, the old love of Gandom, "loved to walk. In the streets, in the alleys and back-alleys, in the parks, in the highways. He said “a person exists as long as he walks; as long as he hits these two legs firmly on the ground." For Farid, walking means to be existed and lived. The street provides the possibility of being and the moving of wanderer. With the change of urban context and the expansion of car-centred cities, driving and strolling by car joined the body of wandering; a kind of wandering that brought cinematic perception and experience to the wanderer through movement, acceleration, and looking from the perspective of the car / windshield. The entire novel “I’m Probably Lost” is formed in the narrative of Gandom wandering with her car. For her, the narrative of now and yesterday, memories, fears, worries and lack of love goes on in framing the city through car glass. Scenes, images, consecutive similarities of billboards / advertisements, cars and people, and the sound of the radio in parallel motion are fragmentary scenes that are compiled and assembled by a wandering narrator. In the story of the city and its people, all urban phenomena (stones, sculptures, cars, boutiques) come to life in the connection and interaction of imagination, dream with reality and space. Memories are represented and recreated in the context of successive associations, in a movement parallel to the events and today’s life of the wanderer, and in highlighting the joys and sorrows of yesterday and her lived experiences. Tehran is the focal point of the narrative of all four parts of the novel " Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue", which is represented and configured in the context of wandering, memory playing, Saman playing in the stores, Leila Jahed’s inner journey, machine wandering of Hamed and Neda in Park. For Saman, all waiting time to meet Neda for the first time and all wanderings in malls are formulated with the memory of Sepideh’s love, Saman being slapped by Mina Faghani / Neda's brother, and his teenage memories. Leila Jahed's inner journey is a safe possibility in the face of the current precarious situation. The yesterday bitterness of Nejat's move to New York at his mother's urging is paralleled by today's fear of losing again due to Neda's love for him. In the novels "I’m Probably Lost" and " Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue", the city of Tehran is not just a place to realize the story; rather, it is the main subject and the fundamental / pivotal character of the story. The failure to receive the volume of Tehran presence affects the audience's enjoyment, understanding and perception of the novel. On a macro level, Tehran embraces the characters of the story, gives them identity and existence, and becomes an inseparable meaning from today's story, yesterday's memories, and not-lived experiences and living; at the micro level, in its components and bodies, in the body of the characters, it determines the possibility of love, loss, finding, etc. In fact, the city of Tehran is a resort, shelter, friend, lover, beloved and companion that offers a kind of existence in accordance with each of the characters in the story. At the end of both stories, it is the city that stays and embraces everyone, a safe place where the characters of the story find their identity and existence as they walk, and the words come to life in the context of its streets.
Extended abstract
According to the perception of the observer in the car, who moves at a higher speed than pedestrians in urban spaces, it can be concluded that the car forms a new kind of urban perception because it shows a city in motion to passengers. The present article analyses the phenomenon of wandering and its semantic-conceptual correlations from the perspective of studies and urban anthropology among the urban novels of the last two decades and has chosen two novels entitled "Man Ehtemālan Gom Shodeh Am" [I’m Probably Lost] by Sara Salar and "Yousefabad, khiābān-e 33" [Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue] by Sina Dadkhah and shows how the city is read as a context, body, and with a focus on characters in wanderings along with the characters' memory-play and lovemaking. All the characters of the story reach this sameness and unique identity with the city in the shelter of wandering in the city/streets, in associations, escapes, representations and disappearances. In tracing the relationship and role of the components and figures of the city (malls, street, coffee shops, parks, sculptures, billboards and advertisements, cars, highways, etc.) with the characters of the story, it is explained how the characters each exist and is identified with their concerns, situations, and longings with a body of the city, in the city, and with the city, and re-read and recreated the city as feminine or masculine in their bodily experiences.
Considering and reflecting on a city as a context, the city appears and becomes a meaningful body. A system of signs and a text opened in front of the eyes of the wandering person that the body and organs of the city are tied, known, read and interpreted to its semantic and spiritual origins. Almost the entire novel “Man Ehtemalan Gom Shodeh Am” takes place in the streets, with Gandom wandering in her car. Tehran in this novel is a context that is rewritten and recreated in signs, magnifications, protrusions, neglects of the presenter / radio reporter and advertisement of large billboards, in parallel motion and in relation to this identity, negative and positive, in the continuation, completion, and Gandom’s current contradiction and her past life. In the novel “Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue”, the body of the city is formed for Neda with the park and its sculptures; sculptures that are the friends of Neda, but with a clear and distinct identity. Neda talks to them; she talks about her childhood, her fears and worries. In the reading of Professor Nejat, Neda’s English Professor, the city is like a human body; a body that surrounds us. In both novels, Tehran is being lived and experienced as a physical body for the wandering characters of the story, a gendered body. Tehran, the most important and pivotal character of both novels, has shared the possibility of a friendly physical body with its wanderers and flows like blood in the veins of all Tehranians. For Hamed Nejat, Tehran is "the grey queen", a feminine and soothing body, and for Neda, it is a masculine and supportive body that embraces the wanderer and hears and accompanies them with their loves, restlessness and loneliness. The wandering and the experience of the city as a physical thing lead to the alignment and similarity of the city and the wanderer. Tehran is a friend, a lover, a beloved and a companion that now its presence and atmosphere are intertwined with the wanderers of the story. Farid Rahdar, the old love of Gandom, "loved to walk. In the streets, in the alleys and back-alleys, in the parks, in the highways. He said “a person exists as long as he walks; as long as he hits these two legs firmly on the ground." For Farid, walking means to be existed and lived. The street provides the possibility of being and the moving of wanderer. With the change of urban context and the expansion of car-centred cities, driving and strolling by car joined the body of wandering; a kind of wandering that brought cinematic perception and experience to the wanderer through movement, acceleration, and looking from the perspective of the car / windshield. The entire novel “I’m Probably Lost” is formed in the narrative of Gandom wandering with her car. For her, the narrative of now and yesterday, memories, fears, worries and lack of love goes on in framing the city through car glass. Scenes, images, consecutive similarities of billboards / advertisements, cars and people, and the sound of the radio in parallel motion are fragmentary scenes that are compiled and assembled by a wandering narrator. In the story of the city and its people, all urban phenomena (stones, sculptures, cars, boutiques) come to life in the connection and interaction of imagination, dream with reality and space. Memories are represented and recreated in the context of successive associations, in a movement parallel to the events and today’s life of the wanderer, and in highlighting the joys and sorrows of yesterday and her lived experiences. Tehran is the focal point of the narrative of all four parts of the novel " Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue", which is represented and configured in the context of wandering, memory playing, Saman playing in the stores, Leila Jahed’s inner journey, machine wandering of Hamed and Neda in Park. For Saman, all waiting time to meet Neda for the first time and all wanderings in malls are formulated with the memory of Sepideh’s love, Saman being slapped by Mina Faghani / Neda's brother, and his teenage memories. Leila Jahed's inner journey is a safe possibility in the face of the current precarious situation. The yesterday bitterness of Nejat's move to New York at his mother's urging is paralleled by today's fear of losing again due to Neda's love for him. In the novels "I’m Probably Lost" and " Yousefabad, Thirty Third Avenue", the city of Tehran is not just a place to realize the story; rather, it is the main subject and the fundamental / pivotal character of the story. The failure to receive the volume of Tehran presence affects the audience's enjoyment, understanding and perception of the novel. On a macro level, Tehran embraces the characters of the story, gives them identity and existence, and becomes an inseparable meaning from today's story, yesterday's memories, and not-lived experiences and living; at the micro level, in its components and bodies, in the body of the characters, it determines the possibility of love, loss, finding, etc. In fact, the city of Tehran is a resort, shelter, friend, lover, beloved and companion that offers a kind of existence in accordance with each of the characters in the story. At the end of both stories, it is the city that stays and embraces everyone, a safe place where the characters of the story find their identity and existence as they walk, and the words come to life in the context of its streets.
Article Type: Original Research |
Subject:
Sociological critique
Received: 2021/12/11 | Accepted: 2022/03/1 | Published: 2022/03/1
Received: 2021/12/11 | Accepted: 2022/03/1 | Published: 2022/03/1
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