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Showing 6 results for Derrida
Volume 1, Issue 2 (12-2003)
Abstract
Historically the theoreticians in literature have studied poem and its nature from various view points. Before any one, Plato and Aristotle had regarded poem in the same way like other art areas as imitation from nature. This theory which was the cornerstone of the other theory in literature continued to the contemporary era.
In the early 20th century and coincide with emergence of new philosophy theories and linguistics, new Literature Theory emerged in which poem gradually was far from the responsibility for transferring message and meaning contrary to classic theories.
Study upon the language of the work (the objective dimension), gradual meaning development or poem multi-meaning and also entering the addressee in the literature work creativity are the most prominent characteristics of the theories such as formalism, structuralism, semiology, paraphrasing the text and deconstruction.
Multiplicity and Varity of the perspectives by which poem and its nature have been studied several times, is the prominent feature of the study on these poetic theories.
, Fattaneh Mahmoudi,
Volume 8, Issue 32 (12-2015)
Volume 8, Issue 32 (12-2015)
Abstract
Dogmatic approaches interpret literary texts in definitive ways. However, literary texts do lose their supposed absolute and final meanings when approached from a poststructuralist perspective. Consequently, it is possible to have multiple readings of a text from different perspectives. Drawing on Derridean deconstruction of binary oppositions, this paper studies a miniature painting by Sultan Mohammad Naqqash based on Hafez’s poetry. Hafez’s divan is always open to various interpretations between spiritual and worldly approaches. Contrary to the classical interpretations in which a definitive meaning is sought after, “Heavenly and Earthly Inebriation” painting by Sultan Mohammad deconstructs this opposition and presents a new reading of the poem. Based on an analytic-historical method, we argue that this painting creates a new hermeneutic world by geometric composition, colors, and characterization. The painting, we conclude, maintains the poetic ambiguity of Hafez’s poetry. Accordingly, we can say that there is no final meaning in this painting because the spectators simultaneously experience both poles of this opposition and, as a result, for them there is no absolute interpretation.
Volume 13, Issue 1 (3-2022)
Abstract
While the study of the concept of transcendental signified is at the core of philosophical studies; its strengths are often applied in linguistics and literature. The present paper examines Walter Benjamin's linguistic approach to the subject of transcendental signified in Kafka's The Castle. Because of its high capacity for learning and discovering a sequence of transcendental signified in its key elements, this novel was selected. Martin Heidegger, and especially his successor Jacques Derrida, tried to use the concept of transcendental signified to criticize the tradition of metaphysical thinking. However, the aim of this research is to use content analysis to explore how such a method is present in Walter Benjamin's thoughts and his popular principle of three layers of language, without specifically using the word transcendental signified. The same level of meaning development that is both feasible and unlikely is found at the third level of language, which Benjamin refers to as the "arena of nonsense." In Kafka's The Castle, Benjamin's argument, which is associated with Derrida's rejection of the existence of transcendental signified, has been put to practical use. Finally, the paper concludes that the relationship between explicitness and ambiguity in the three key elements of a story, namely the character "K," " Castle," and also the job of “Surveyor," reveal the impossibility of transcendental signified, and represent the third level of Benjamin’s language.
Volume 14, Issue 4 (10-2023)
Abstract
"Language" and its related issues are one of the most challenging aspects of philosophy and new critical approaches in reading religious texts. This is highly important in postmodern critical approaches and especially the Derridian reading of texts, which is one of the tools of some neo-Mu'tzalites in reading the Quranic text due to the authenticity of the language in these approaches. This has caused serious challenges due to its distinctive view on language. In this regard, the present research aims to "explain" two different views from the perspective of Derrida and Mulla Sadra in order to provide the conditions for the visibility of two approaches to being and knowledge through the window of language and the extent of the possibility of such readings with an analytical-comparative method. The findings of the research illustrate Mulla Sadra's view of existence, knowledge, and language, and his belief in the system of formation and education, which is derived from three sources of knowledge, the intellect, the heart, and revelation, and the divine language which has three creative stages. Considering the formative and legislative as well as the sub-territorial features of human language, Derrida's view on the third linguistic level can be examined from this point of view, and due to Derrida's failure to proceed from the intellectual-philosophical method, it was argued that he could not go beyond the "verbal" stage (in the epistemic system of creation.
1. Introduction
Contemporary reading of Holy Quran through critical and linguistic approaches based on the philosophical and post-modern criticism by some neo-Mu'tzalites has creates serious challenges for the Islamic communities. For example, Nasr Hamed Abuzayd mentions in his book On the Meaning of Text that although language is one of the most important tools of social communication and culture, one cannot consider any text out of culture and the actual reality of that text. Without any distinction between the language of divinity and material dialectics, he considers the language of Quran as a cultural construct. Considering the importance and status of language, truth, meaning, and elements of different readings, this study focuses on two Islamic and western thinkers’ thoughts on the relationship between truth and being. In other words, the study analyzes the ideas of Mulla Sadra – considered by some as the representation of post-modern Islamic civilization – and Derrida – as a Jew thinker familiar with mysticism – to compare their approaches regarding language. It compares and contrasts their ideas on language to investigate language as a whole, and the principles and meta-structures in detail. Therefore, this analytic-comparative study happens within comparative philosophy and explanatory framework to compare a phenomenon with its samples to realize the two approaches regarding knowledge and being from the linguistic point of view. It is evident that the comparative approach toward this topic can shed light on the differences regarding the theories and ideas of these two thinkers, and show the similarities in their views on language. The aim is to answer the following research questions:
1. What is the role of language regarding being and knowledge in Quranic-based approaches of Mulla Sadra and Derrida?
2. How far Mulla Sadra’s reading of Quran’s language can leave space for Derridian reading of this text?
Accordingly, the following hypotheses were put forth:
1. It seems that the approaches of these two thinkers regarding language is very similar and both prioritize language to being and knowledge.
2. Considering the hypothesis on the similarity between the two approaches on language, one can claim that Mulla Sadra’s approach and his philosophical view on Quran affirms the Derridian approach to the same text.
2. Findings
Mulla Sadra relies on three sources of intellect, heart, and revelation, and three schemes of originality of being, suspicion of existence and intrinsic movement which refer to independence of being, meaning that the divine and being in the hierarchical system is based on cause and effect. The first cause is the divine force which is the speaker, and the speech is the actual potential. The God’s speech is the final outcome of its perfectionism which appears in two forms of non-verbal and verbal which is realized through manifestation and representation of the world, and the other one is verbal which occurs through the writing of Quran for understanding the world. God manifested in its speech and is the actual being. The world happens through the divine speech. The divine speech is on its own (the world) and it is prior to knowing. This priority of language to being is the commonality between Derrida and Mulla Sadra which confirms the first hypothesis of the research, the difference being that Derrida is human’s speech unlike the divine word, and it is not based on a perfect being borrowed from language. It also does not go beyond the reliance on others from Mulla Sadra’s perspective. Based on Mulla Sadra, Quran is God’s speech and a reference. However, Derrida only believes in the written and even departs it from the status of a book.
Based on Mulla Sadra, to understand the divine language, one needs a learned science and divine one, but Derrida only relies on the learned science since he does not go beyond the intellectual-philosophical level.
Based on Mulla Sadra’s approach and his theory of integrity of being, the invented speech and the religious one are based on a holistic and hierarchical being, not a plural and diverse meaning, but a deep-seated one. The level of understanding depends on the reader which is different from that of Derrida’s which is based on plurality of meaning. In Mulla Sadra’s approach, the speaker in the Quranic text is an infinite being, an actual presence. Understanding this presence is based on the feature of comprehension, the lack of which is the lack of comprehension. Therefore, the language of Quran is a technical language.
The divine speech is an actual action and the meaning of speech is actual speech. In religious words, the purpose is non-verbal, however, in both cases, presence and purpose are unchangeable. Therefore, based on Mulla Sadra’s approach, Quranic text does not welcome Derridian reading. Accordingly, the second hypothesis is rejected and some Mu'tzalites’ reading of Quran which are based on Derrida’s theory needs revision.
According to Mulla Sadra’s ideas on human’s speech, as human is a representation and sample of the divine, and a lower version, he can reach the actual divine speech if perfection happens for him as well, which can on its own account bring along the divine names for him, and all three aspects of divine speech in invention, interpretation, and realization manifest within the person. Nevertheless, when human stands in lower position where the actual knowledge is not within his reach, using language at the lowest possible level of asking for things through language, the meaning of speech is anything but speech, which merely means words and verbal speech. Human should dwell on a lowering curving path through manifestation and understanding in order to reach knowing, after which the rising path leads to development. Therefore, knowing is prior to language, and language is representation.
Derrida’s approach is based on the lowest level of language. Based on his own assumptions and philosophical mentality, Derrida does not try to achieve perfect truth and divine knowledge, since this divine world is denied in his western metaphysics, centering human on its conception, which is surprisingly rejected by the post-modernists. Although one cannot ignore postmodernism's spirituality, even as some consider some type of postmodernism as a return to religion, this return is thoroughly individual spirituality which does not rely on any truth. However, the religious spirituality is absolutely perfectionist and divine. Nonetheless, Derrida’s reading is the lowest possible level of human language which occurs in material world, though one can claim based on Mulla Sadra’s approach that this level of reading is not actually possible as words are merely resources through which the level of some underlying absolute meaning are accessible, not a source of plural meaning.
Although Derrida relates the world as God’s writing due to his Jewish background, and like Mulla Sadra, considers the word as the cause of being, he traps God within the language. Mulla Sadra, however, posing the theory of being, considers God the cause of all causes, which has been caused before anything, and language, compared to the perfect being, is the occurred and secondary feature. If both of these figures consider the world as a part of God’s written, Mulla Sadra believes in the world as the actual and descriptive representation of the higher perfect speech and being, while Derrida distinguishes the writing from the book and looks for plural meaning and evolution of the world based on the holy book. It should also be mentioned that writing and speech is fundamentally different from the perspective of these two thinkers
Esmaeel Golrokh Masuleh, Ebrahim Khodayar, Seyyed Ali Ghasemzadeh,
Volume 14, Issue 56 (12-2021)
Volume 14, Issue 56 (12-2021)
Abstract
In this article, the critical works of Poornamdarian are analyzed and read with a philosophical hermeneutic approach. The question is whether hermeneutic philosophy has been the basis for the interpretation of literary works in this author's critical works. And if so, what hermeneutic concepts and themes form the basis of his work? Hermeneutic philosophy has penetrated in literary criticism with many of its themes and concepts. It seems that Poornamdarian has also used many of these concepts in his works, and many of the manifestations and ideas derived from this philosophy have been the basis of his works in the critique and analysis of literary works. But in utilizing these concepts, however, he has not merely placed himself in the realm of an imitative critic who has been influenced by one of the thought approaches related to philosophical hermeneutics, but, in addition to, his knowledge of the universal knowledge of critique in the field of hermeneutics, relying on the legacy of interpretation, introduces the audience to a new perspective on methodical literary criticism. The titles and layers of this article that are influenced by these concepts are: interpretation, semantic pluralism, symbol and allegory, demythologization in symbolic texts, deconstruction, grammatology, author death theory, intertextuality, ambiguity and meaninglessness (ambiguity), apostrophe and multifaceted, deconstructive and multifaceted connection with didactic and theological poetry, multifaceted and social commitment in poetry and literature. In his critical works, he has sometimes directly analyzed and studied these issues, and sometimes, as a special approach, he has absorbed and digested these concepts in his works that it could be said that .zhe has appropriated them as a discourse.
Extended abstract
Problem statement: The theoretical foundations of this research are based on "philosophical hermeneutics". Hermeneutics has a history of analyzing and interpreting the holy books of religions, including Christianity, Islam, and even surviving writings in the Persian language. Hence, interpretation, as an ancient ritual, is rooted in the belief in the "sanctity of the text." Influenced by the philosophical theories of Heidegger and Gadamer and their followers, Poornamdarian have created works in the field of literary criticism and interpretation of classical and contemporary Persian texts. One question is whether the opinions and ideas of literary criticism of critics such as the Poornamdarian, which are evident or hidden in his works, can be explained on the basis of philosophical hermeneutics. Another question is that in what fields and subjects does hermeneutics have the capacity to analyze and recognize in his system of thought - by digesting and absorbing their opinions in his works and not by following and mechanically imitating them? And can it be said that in this way he has tried to include some hermeneutical approaches in his critiques "through self-appropriation"?
Research findings
Poornamdarian considers interpretation (hermeneutics) as the search for truth to reveal the coherence of the text. The goal he pursues in interpreting the works of the Persian poems is to harmonize and create an agreement between traditional interpretation and modern hermeneutics. In this alignment, he combines three approaches of traditional and hermeneutic interpretation of Gadamerian and Eric Hersh's thinking, that is, the semantic validity of the text, and thus demonstrates his belief in the coherence of the text; However, he does not believe in a single meaning for the text; Because it does not find consistency and single inference with the situational context of multiple individuals and readers. Through the combination of these three fields of thought, he has "adopted" the hermeneutic critique approach and adopted a pluralistic approach. This discourse requires a kind of moderation in interpretation. It has an influence on the deconstruction of the text as well as on the issue of the author's death. He also equates the former with polysemy and the latter with uniqueness in terms of meaninglessness and meaning. He considers texts such as theological and didactic texts to be single-meaning or meaningful, and cryptographic texts to be meaningless and to imply a plurality of meanings. The issues of hermeneutics in his critical works have, in some cases, been directly analyzed and studied, and are sometimes so absorbed in his works that it shows that he regarded them as discourse. Another issue is that he has undergone a kind of transformation from cryptography to deconstruction in the production of his critical works; But the truth is that this metamorphosis does not have a fixed and absolute process, but rather lies in deconstructions and cryptocurrencies in his works.
Conclusion
The critic in this article, Poornamdarian, to achieve a moderate and coherent interpretation, without believing in a single meaning for the text, chooses an approach of harmonization and agreement between the three areas of traditional interpretation and Gadamerian hermeneutics and Eric Hersh's thinking the semantic validity of the text. And in a relative, rather than absolute, metamorphosis that governs the process of producing his critical works, he uses this moderation in most of his works.
Extended abstract
Problem statement: The theoretical foundations of this research are based on "philosophical hermeneutics". Hermeneutics has a history of analyzing and interpreting the holy books of religions, including Christianity, Islam, and even surviving writings in the Persian language. Hence, interpretation, as an ancient ritual, is rooted in the belief in the "sanctity of the text." Influenced by the philosophical theories of Heidegger and Gadamer and their followers, Poornamdarian have created works in the field of literary criticism and interpretation of classical and contemporary Persian texts. One question is whether the opinions and ideas of literary criticism of critics such as the Poornamdarian, which are evident or hidden in his works, can be explained on the basis of philosophical hermeneutics. Another question is that in what fields and subjects does hermeneutics have the capacity to analyze and recognize in his system of thought - by digesting and absorbing their opinions in his works and not by following and mechanically imitating them? And can it be said that in this way he has tried to include some hermeneutical approaches in his critiques "through self-appropriation"?
Research findings
Poornamdarian considers interpretation (hermeneutics) as the search for truth to reveal the coherence of the text. The goal he pursues in interpreting the works of the Persian poems is to harmonize and create an agreement between traditional interpretation and modern hermeneutics. In this alignment, he combines three approaches of traditional and hermeneutic interpretation of Gadamerian and Eric Hersh's thinking, that is, the semantic validity of the text, and thus demonstrates his belief in the coherence of the text; However, he does not believe in a single meaning for the text; Because it does not find consistency and single inference with the situational context of multiple individuals and readers. Through the combination of these three fields of thought, he has "adopted" the hermeneutic critique approach and adopted a pluralistic approach. This discourse requires a kind of moderation in interpretation. It has an influence on the deconstruction of the text as well as on the issue of the author's death. He also equates the former with polysemy and the latter with uniqueness in terms of meaninglessness and meaning. He considers texts such as theological and didactic texts to be single-meaning or meaningful, and cryptographic texts to be meaningless and to imply a plurality of meanings. The issues of hermeneutics in his critical works have, in some cases, been directly analyzed and studied, and are sometimes so absorbed in his works that it shows that he regarded them as discourse. Another issue is that he has undergone a kind of transformation from cryptography to deconstruction in the production of his critical works; But the truth is that this metamorphosis does not have a fixed and absolute process, but rather lies in deconstructions and cryptocurrencies in his works.
Conclusion
The critic in this article, Poornamdarian, to achieve a moderate and coherent interpretation, without believing in a single meaning for the text, chooses an approach of harmonization and agreement between the three areas of traditional interpretation and Gadamerian hermeneutics and Eric Hersh's thinking the semantic validity of the text. And in a relative, rather than absolute, metamorphosis that governs the process of producing his critical works, he uses this moderation in most of his works.
Roghaye Bahadori, Fatemeh Sadeghi Naghdali Olya,
Volume 17, Issue 65 (4-2024)
Volume 17, Issue 65 (4-2024)
Abstract
Due to the temporal gap between the author's childhood and that of the child reader, children's literature defies age limits and thus exemplifies crossover literature. Post-structural criticism and deconstruction are amongst critical approaches that can spotlight such contradictory gaps in a text. Mohammad-Reza Shams is a distinguished and influential icon in contemporary Iranian children's literature. In this research, a selection of his works has been examined by using Derrida's deconstructive approach. This research has applied a descriptive and interpretive method with purposeful sampling. Deconstructive features such as binary oppositions, indecidability, aporia, intertextuality, deauthorization, and iterability have been traced in Shams' works. Intertextuality seems to be the dominant deconstructive feature in his fictional world. The findings of this research indicate that Shams' works expose readers to multiple meaning and confront them with the unending chain of signifiers. Intertextual fluidity and multiple layers of meaning in Shams' fiction reveal that the implied reader of his works far from being a passive consumer of the text, is actively involved in the process of meaning construction.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
What makes "children literature" different from "adult literature" is the role and position of the audience in children's literature. The creators of literature that is characterized by the childishness of the audience are adults who maintain their authoritative relationship in the work unintentionally. This point will inevitably lead to two-sidedness of children's literature. One of the methods that can provide a proper analysis of children's literature texts and respond to the dual confrontations of children's literature and at the same time show its depth is Derrida's deconstruction.
Using the method of deconstruction in the analysis of literary texts does not mean the destruction of meaning, but the concept of describing the instability and pluralism on which the foundations of the texts are formed. In this research, we intended to examine the selected works of Mohammad Reza Shams, with a poststructuralist reading and Derrida's deconstruction approach. He is one of the prominent authors in the field of children's and adolescent literature. Mohammad-Reza Shams has tried to write differently in his creative works by avoiding stereotypes.
Data and Method
In this research, we examine Derrida's poststructuralist and deconstructionist concepts, including binary oppositions, indecidability, aporia, intertextuality, deauthorization, and iterability and recognize these features and concepts in the selected works of Mohammadreza Shams' works. Mohammadreza Shams has implemented some of Derrida's theories in his creative works.
For this purpose, after the explanation of post-structuralism and Derrida's deconstruction, we have studied the poststructuralist reading of four works written by Mohammad Reza Shams for the teenage age group, from the two perspectives of indication and narrative, in order to show how they deconstruct themselves. These works, which are well attuned to the criticism of Derrida's deconstruction, include: Divāneh and Chāh; Sobhāne-ye Khiāl; Man, Man-e Kale Gonde; Man Zan-Bābā o Damāq-e Bābā.
Results and Discussion
The post-structuralist reading of texts can be done from the two perspectives of indication and narration. In the deconstruction of signification, the endless reference of signifier brings about the plurality of meaning and the birth of meaning; therefore, it includes the components of binary oppositions, indecidability, aporia, all of which indicate the absence of ultimate meaning. The deconstruction of binary oppositions questions the concepts derived from metaphysical thinking and creates a new interpretation. In the studied works of Shams, the author has tried to present a different and new interpretation by collapsing the opposites of sane/insane, man/his shadow, death/life, text/margin and man/woman.
indecidability opens the way for any decision and gives it the possibility to be different. In the works of Shams, there are many characters who are stuck in their affairs and do not have the ability to make decisions, and this inability sometimes involves the narrator as well. Aporia are the blind spots that prevent definitive meaning, and the text remains uninterpretable, like secrets that remain unsealed and questions that are never answered. In the works of Shams, there are many behaviors that have no reason and relationships whose nature is ambiguous. There are many questions that remain unanswered.
In the deconstruction of the narrative, the narrative is just one of the infinity of narratives that are being built and destroyed one after another. Shams usually does not use linear narration and cause and effect logic in his works, and the circular structure is usual in his works. In his works, we are usually faced with several narratives, and sometimes a part of the narrative can be removed without adversely affected the entire narrative; the seeming insignificance of the story itself and the importance of its plot and how to narrate it by choosing a non-linear, complex and irregular method are some of the features that perceived in some of Shams' narratives. The components that are investigated in this context are intertextuality, de-authorization and iterability.
In general, intertextuality means that no speech or writing creates meaning by itself, but its meaning is created by referring to other speeches and writings. The intertextuality in Shams' works are generally references to proverbs, folk tales, stories of prophets, characters from the Shāhnāmeh and other literary works, sometimes they refer to other works of the author himself.
In de-authorization, attention is directed from the author to the text. Therefore, it is no longer possible to claim that the text has a center or a point that can be considered the origin; the text is a combination of pre-existing fragments of text. The existence of this point of view in post-structuralism degrades the position of the author. Sometimes, by leaving the work of art incomplete or expressing the inability to create, the artist himself attested the invalidity of the author's role; In this situation, the text ends in a way that gives the reader the opportunity of different readings, or in the text, different endings are put in front of the reader to choose from. We see both modes in the works of Shams. In all these stories, we are facing an open ending. Sometimes this open ending is clearly stated in the text.
Iterability is the repetitions that are both similar to the repeated sign and different from it and make the reader continue reading; each repetition produces a difference. It can be said that Shams intends to establish a link between the scattered pieces of the narrative by bringing the repeated scenes, dialogues or events in his long stories. In addition to recurring factors in a story, some scenes or themes are repeated in several works of Shams, which is a sign of infinity. The existence of this feature keeps the narratives from being straightforward and definiteness.
Conclusion
The temporal gap between the author and the audience leads to two-sidedness of children's literature and adds to its complexity; however, this duality itself can cause binary oppositions and multiple meanings. One of the approaches of literary criticism that can show this duality is post-structuralism and Derrida's deconstructive approach. In this way of reading, new meanings and interpretations of the text show themselves and it leads to pluralization and generation of meaning. Mohammad-Reza Shams, one of the prominent writers in the field of children and adolescence literature, has tried to write differently in his authored and creative works by avoiding stereotypes.
In addition to the fact that the presence of components of deconstruction in the works causes multiplicity, discontinuity, and birth of meaning, the structure of the stories is also generally in a form that allows the reader the possibility of different readings. Sometimes the author gives several endings for the stories and gives the reader the right to choose. In the most cases, by leaving the narrative unfinished, he gives the reader the chance to determine the end of the narrative at his own will.
The plurality of meanings in Shams' works provides the possibility of several different interpretations for the reader. In fact, the works of Mohammad-Reza Shams directs the reader towards the plurality of meanings and the continuous generation of meanings by taking advantage of these indicative and narrative features. The intertextual fluidity and multiple layers of meaning in these works indicate that the hidden audience of the text is not a static consumer, but plays an effective and dynamic role in constructing the meaning of the text.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
What makes "children literature" different from "adult literature" is the role and position of the audience in children's literature. The creators of literature that is characterized by the childishness of the audience are adults who maintain their authoritative relationship in the work unintentionally. This point will inevitably lead to two-sidedness of children's literature. One of the methods that can provide a proper analysis of children's literature texts and respond to the dual confrontations of children's literature and at the same time show its depth is Derrida's deconstruction.
Using the method of deconstruction in the analysis of literary texts does not mean the destruction of meaning, but the concept of describing the instability and pluralism on which the foundations of the texts are formed. In this research, we intended to examine the selected works of Mohammad Reza Shams, with a poststructuralist reading and Derrida's deconstruction approach. He is one of the prominent authors in the field of children's and adolescent literature. Mohammad-Reza Shams has tried to write differently in his creative works by avoiding stereotypes.
Data and Method
In this research, we examine Derrida's poststructuralist and deconstructionist concepts, including binary oppositions, indecidability, aporia, intertextuality, deauthorization, and iterability and recognize these features and concepts in the selected works of Mohammadreza Shams' works. Mohammadreza Shams has implemented some of Derrida's theories in his creative works.
For this purpose, after the explanation of post-structuralism and Derrida's deconstruction, we have studied the poststructuralist reading of four works written by Mohammad Reza Shams for the teenage age group, from the two perspectives of indication and narrative, in order to show how they deconstruct themselves. These works, which are well attuned to the criticism of Derrida's deconstruction, include: Divāneh and Chāh; Sobhāne-ye Khiāl; Man, Man-e Kale Gonde; Man Zan-Bābā o Damāq-e Bābā.
Results and Discussion
The post-structuralist reading of texts can be done from the two perspectives of indication and narration. In the deconstruction of signification, the endless reference of signifier brings about the plurality of meaning and the birth of meaning; therefore, it includes the components of binary oppositions, indecidability, aporia, all of which indicate the absence of ultimate meaning. The deconstruction of binary oppositions questions the concepts derived from metaphysical thinking and creates a new interpretation. In the studied works of Shams, the author has tried to present a different and new interpretation by collapsing the opposites of sane/insane, man/his shadow, death/life, text/margin and man/woman.
indecidability opens the way for any decision and gives it the possibility to be different. In the works of Shams, there are many characters who are stuck in their affairs and do not have the ability to make decisions, and this inability sometimes involves the narrator as well. Aporia are the blind spots that prevent definitive meaning, and the text remains uninterpretable, like secrets that remain unsealed and questions that are never answered. In the works of Shams, there are many behaviors that have no reason and relationships whose nature is ambiguous. There are many questions that remain unanswered.
In the deconstruction of the narrative, the narrative is just one of the infinity of narratives that are being built and destroyed one after another. Shams usually does not use linear narration and cause and effect logic in his works, and the circular structure is usual in his works. In his works, we are usually faced with several narratives, and sometimes a part of the narrative can be removed without adversely affected the entire narrative; the seeming insignificance of the story itself and the importance of its plot and how to narrate it by choosing a non-linear, complex and irregular method are some of the features that perceived in some of Shams' narratives. The components that are investigated in this context are intertextuality, de-authorization and iterability.
In general, intertextuality means that no speech or writing creates meaning by itself, but its meaning is created by referring to other speeches and writings. The intertextuality in Shams' works are generally references to proverbs, folk tales, stories of prophets, characters from the Shāhnāmeh and other literary works, sometimes they refer to other works of the author himself.
In de-authorization, attention is directed from the author to the text. Therefore, it is no longer possible to claim that the text has a center or a point that can be considered the origin; the text is a combination of pre-existing fragments of text. The existence of this point of view in post-structuralism degrades the position of the author. Sometimes, by leaving the work of art incomplete or expressing the inability to create, the artist himself attested the invalidity of the author's role; In this situation, the text ends in a way that gives the reader the opportunity of different readings, or in the text, different endings are put in front of the reader to choose from. We see both modes in the works of Shams. In all these stories, we are facing an open ending. Sometimes this open ending is clearly stated in the text.
Iterability is the repetitions that are both similar to the repeated sign and different from it and make the reader continue reading; each repetition produces a difference. It can be said that Shams intends to establish a link between the scattered pieces of the narrative by bringing the repeated scenes, dialogues or events in his long stories. In addition to recurring factors in a story, some scenes or themes are repeated in several works of Shams, which is a sign of infinity. The existence of this feature keeps the narratives from being straightforward and definiteness.
Conclusion
The temporal gap between the author and the audience leads to two-sidedness of children's literature and adds to its complexity; however, this duality itself can cause binary oppositions and multiple meanings. One of the approaches of literary criticism that can show this duality is post-structuralism and Derrida's deconstructive approach. In this way of reading, new meanings and interpretations of the text show themselves and it leads to pluralization and generation of meaning. Mohammad-Reza Shams, one of the prominent writers in the field of children and adolescence literature, has tried to write differently in his authored and creative works by avoiding stereotypes.
In addition to the fact that the presence of components of deconstruction in the works causes multiplicity, discontinuity, and birth of meaning, the structure of the stories is also generally in a form that allows the reader the possibility of different readings. Sometimes the author gives several endings for the stories and gives the reader the right to choose. In the most cases, by leaving the narrative unfinished, he gives the reader the chance to determine the end of the narrative at his own will.
The plurality of meanings in Shams' works provides the possibility of several different interpretations for the reader. In fact, the works of Mohammad-Reza Shams directs the reader towards the plurality of meanings and the continuous generation of meanings by taking advantage of these indicative and narrative features. The intertextual fluidity and multiple layers of meaning in these works indicate that the hidden audience of the text is not a static consumer, but plays an effective and dynamic role in constructing the meaning of the text.
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