The Dominant Epistemological Element in The Novel "Conversation of the Great Wizard with the Queen of the Island of Colors" by Jamshid Khanian

Abstract

Ever since Brian McHale emphasized the modern epistemological and ontological element in the separation of the modern novel from the postmodern novel, the subject of the dominant element has been considered in most postmodern research. McHale believed that in modern novels the dominant element is epistemological issues. Postmodern novels, on the other hand, pay more attention to ontological issues. Epistemology is a part of philosophical knowledge that has gained special importance during the last three centuries and its subject is the study of the issue of cognition and its characteristics. McHale believed that modern novels address questions in both content and structure that revolve around the issue of cognition. Questions such as how is cognition achieved? Where is the scope of awareness? What is the structure of knowledge? The novel "The Great Magician's Conversation with the Queen of the Colorful Islands" tells the story of a day in the life of a teenager named Rahi who becomes a guest of a family that has lost its child. In this work, the author has made the subject of cognition the subject of narration both in content and structure. The present study has used a descriptive-analytical method to study the dominant epistemological element in this novel. The results show that in this work, Khanian has examined the characteristics, conditions and scope of cognition by using approaches such as the function of linguistic signs in the matter of consciousness, the issue of intentionality and the subject of dynamics in consciousness.

Extended abstract

Problem statement: Bryan McHale believes that in distinguishing modern novels from postmodern novels, we must return to the subject of the "dominant" first raised by Roman Jacobson, who considers epistemology to be the dominant theme of modern novels and the dominant theme of postmodern novels. In this article, an attempt has been made to examine the dominant epistemological issue in the adolescent novel "The Conversation of the Great Witch with the Queen of the Island of Colors" by Jamshid Khanian. Jamshid Khanian is one of the writers of the age group of children and adolescents, who in his works, in addition to using new writing techniques, reflects new concerns and ideas. The current research, in addition to providing a practical model for recognizing the characteristics of the dominant epistemology in literary works, will show some of the semantic capacities of the novel "The Great Wizard's Conversation with the Queen of the Island of Colors". The present article has been done in a descriptive-analytical method

Research findings:

Jamshid Khanian is one of the writers of the age group of children and adolescents who in the process of creating his fictional works pays attention to both formal and content issues. “The Great Wizard Conversation with the Queen of the Island of Colors” focuses on cognition both in design and content. The epistemological concerns in the text of this novel have a special expression in the form of content issues and the form of narration. Khanian, both in the whole narrative and in the dialogues of the characters, has considered the subject of linguistic signs and its components, namely the signifier and the signified, as well as the quality of the relationship between these two components. In his view, linguistic signs, as the main tool available to human subjects in representing facts, are by no means expressive; But humans have no choice but to use these signs. According to this author, children and adolescents use more initiative in the process of assigning signs, i.e., written and written forms to meanings, i.e. mental forms, and this issue in naming different phenomena, places and emotions by the main character that is, "Rahi" is observed. The book is also devoted to the process of formation of consciousness in the minds of subjects. Taking into account the phenomenological approaches of the famous contemporary philosopher Edmund Husserl, the author has depicted the subject of different effects and multiplicity of phenomena according to the type of attention and also attention of the subjects to these phenomena in the form of story events. In different parts of the story, we see situations in which the hidden attention and intentions of the cognitive actor cause different manifestations of things and phenomena. The issue of constant change in consciousness is another issue in the field of epistemology that has been considered in this story. Apart from the contextual attention to this major approach in the category of cognition, the structure of the narrative in this novel is designed in such a way that the reader's consciousness is constantly subject to change and transformation. This story is narrated in 54 separate sections. The individual parts begin and move forward when Rahi's character enters Ms. Parsa's room, and the couple parts are dedicated to narrating the events from morning to noon on the day of the story. This special type of narration has caused the reader to face topics and conversations in the individual sections that s/he is not aware of, and it is in the process of reading the couple sections that s/he becomes aware of the history of the conversations. This makes the reader's consciousness always change; As in the initial encounter with the conversations between the characters, a mentality is formed in him, which changes as the narrative progresses. This situation leads the reader of the novel to conclude at the end of the reading that believing in certainty in the subject's understanding of the phenomena can have harmful consequences.

Conclusion:

The results show that in this work, Khanian has examined the characteristics, conditions and scope of cognition by using approaches such as the function of linguistic signs in the matter of consciousness, the issue of intentionality and the subject of dynamics in consciousness.