فرایندهای مضمون‌یابی در نقد ادبی

Although the theme of a work has an important role in literary and art criticism, it has been less discussed as a methodological process. Persian researchers are more concerned with explication and introduction of the theme of literary works than to discuss the processes, methods and strategies of discovering and understanding the theme. This paper, relying on examples of literary and art criticism, introduces two thematising processes: direct and indirect. The first and prevailing process obtains themes through the evident signs and explicit meanings of a text. Three of these evident signs include the direct utterances of the text, elements of fabula, and literary conventions. This process usually displays familiar themes. In contrast, the indirect process achieves the theme of a work by relying on implicit and constructed meanings, using strategies such as the concepts of literary theories, formal devices, extracting non-objective motifs, or combining these. The second type of themes, due to their strangeness, must be justified by a critic precisely and for this reason, they display that the critic is aware of his/her strategies.



Extended Abstract

Theme is one of the most current concepts and tools in literary and artistic criticism. Theme and thematic view contribute to the various types and levels of criticism; from the simplest dialogues to professional literary studies and analysis (Scholes, 2018: 22- 23). The effect of the theme can be seen in analytic works in literature and art; for example, the analysis of our everyday dialogues, talking about a movie or novel, introducing a work in social media, and people’s evaluations of a literary work or genre. Also, theme has a central function in academic studies. One of the current issues in academic papers, at least in Persian language and literature, is a direct or indirect discussion of the theme of literary works.

In education, an important part of the knowledge students learn is also the themes of the literary works. It can be said that, even curriculums and courses in Persian language and literature, are based on the categorizing of literary texts drawn from their themes. This view to theme and current discussion about theme is a part of the concept that is called “content knowledge” (Linkon, 2018: 19- 28). Therefore, here we have lost “Strategic knowledge”; a type of knowledge that focuses on the process of obtaining these themes. In other words, among the dense articles, theses, curriculums, and common discussion about themes of literary works, there are very few discussions about how to gain these themes. In this paper, I have tried to achieve this aim. In other words, although the theme of a work has an important role in literary and art criticism, it has been less discussed as a methodological process. Persian researchers are more concerned with explication and introduction of the theme of literary works than to discuss the processes, methods and strategies of discovering and understanding the theme This paper, relying on examples of literary and art criticism, introduces two thematising processes: direct and indirect. My aim, in this article, is to discuss about processes and strategies of constructing of theme via readers and critics rather to discuss about the instances of concrete themes.

Some of the theoretical studies about theme deal with definition of this term and its difference between theme and other similar or correlative terms (Parsanasab, 2009; Taghavi & Dehghan 2009; Sami’i Gilani, 2007). Babak Mo’in (2015) also in his article introduces the concept theme in French thematic theorists’ point of view. Because of its reliance on the thermalizing processes, above article is related to my research.

In this article, I have exploited Bordwell (1989) and his results about theme and interpretation. He introduces current norms and procedures in finding and constructing themes and meanings in the history of film studies. With regard to the ideas, theories, and definitions of theme, in this article I want to answer these questions: How do we achieve the theme of works? Is a theme an objective matter or subjective one? Is critic’s awareness of the process of making theme affective on the thematic research?

Some of the results of this paper are: various processes of thematising and making theme can be categorized in two main groups: direct processes and indirect processes. The first and prevailing process obtains themes through the evident signs and explicit meanings of a text. Three of these evident signs include the direct utterances of the narrator or fictional characters in the text, elements of fabula (events and persons presented in the deep structure of text), and literary conventions (genre, schools, theories, or some current conventions in literary or artistic institutions). This process usually displays familiar, canonical and traditional themes. Because of their familiarity, these themes don’t need to be explained or justified by critics. In contrast, the indirect process achieves the theme of a work by relying on implicit and constructed meanings, using strategies such as the concepts of literary theories (like sexual or political concepts), formal devices and their meanings (like focalization, metalepsis, or parody), extracting non-objective motifs (like reflection or pretense), or even combining these strategies. The second type of themes, due to their strangeness, must be justified by a critic precisely and for this reason, they display that the critic is aware of his/her strategies. Finally, relying on the second process of theme making and thematising, I introduced the themes of some of the literary and cinematic works such as Hafiz’s poems, Birds by Alfred Hitchcock, and Invasion by Sharam Mokri.