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Showing 20 results for Deconstruction
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Volume 1, Issue 3 (10-2008)
Volume 1, Issue 3 (10-2008)
Abstract
Mahmood Fotoohi Roudmajani Associate. Professor Of Persian Language and Literature Ferdowsi University The literary text is actually multiple meaning and flexible for interpretation and this feature is created by figurative language and tropes. This article attempts to investigate how the tropes create ambiguity and suspension of meaning in the text; how they damage the ordinary language and deconstruct it again. For this purpose the article classifies the tropes on the base of their functions in making a gap between literary world and ordinary language. It discusses the tropes function separately in preparing depth meaning for the text. Finally it concludes that the eternality of text and its flexibility for interpretation somewhat come in to being from tropes and figurative language. Figurative language is essentially deconstructive, because it initially makes different meanings by altering the ordinary usage of language elements, and then denies the possibility of its purposed meaning. The literary text in each reading therefore damages its own structure and deconstructs itself by way of differentiation and suspension of the meaning and this way achieves its ability to make dialogues with different kinds of generation and to be flexible for different reading in history.
Volume 2, Issue 1 (3-2022)
Abstract
Challenging the entire western philosophical tradition, which in his opinion has caused useless theoretical dualisms throughout the history of philosophy, Rorty wants to attempt to deconstruct and eliminate these dualisms in the context of "redemptive literary culture". By creating a dividing line between the private and public spheres, Rorty wants to specify the contribution and involvement of philosophers in presenting theoretical and philosophical views and to say that the political sphere does not need to acquire foundations from the individual criteria of the private sphere. It is as if Rorty wants to prevent the philosopher's ambitions and interference with theorizing by reducing philosophy to literature. In fact, he believes in the distinction between private and public spheres or politics, the philosopher's tool is imagination and his intellectual sphere is literary culture and his place is the private sphere. Assuming the acceptance of pragmatic criteria, doesn't this division of a person in two completely different areas make him a dual personality? Can this intellectual stance be reasonable and acceptable?
Ghodrat Ghasemipour,
Volume 2, Issue 6 (7-2009)
Volume 2, Issue 6 (7-2009)
Abstract
In this essay parody will be discussed in the sphere of modern literary theories. In some of literary theories, parody is used as a literary genre to explain dominant processes and mechanisms in literary discourse, and some of them, such as deconstruction, operate as parody. According to Russian formalists, parody is a literary genre that, in the most effective way, represents evolution of literary genres and defamiliarization of literary texts. Mikhail Bakhtin places parody in his dialogism theory, too. According to structuralists too Parody is one of the complex and secondary literary genres that represents intertexuality.The relation between parody and deconstruction is connected to the way they act. Parody and deconstruction implicitly are the same, by breaching and inhabiting in former texts: they cause breaking and destruction of these texts.
Volume 2, Issue 6 (12-2004)
Abstract
Taslimi ,A. ,Ph.D
Abstract:
This article presents the characteristics of the postmodern fiction. The examples of these characteristics are found in a variety of Persian novels, long and short stories, although sometimes the foreign stories have been quoted as well. The main concern of the article is the manner of the arrival and presence of postmodern characteristics, postmodern theories and mechanisms in short story and novel. This matter has been categorized into three headlines:
1-Expressing the theory in text through establishment of the theoretical story ;
2-Applicating the theory on the surface of the text ;
3-Applicating the theory on the deep structure of the story which is the highest achievements of postmodern art;
A theory revive in fiction; for example, non–obedience of the character from the author shows the death of author idea in the deep structure of the fiction.
Volume 3, Issue 6 (11-2015)
Abstract
Folk stories have come from the ventricle of populace, because they are comprehensive mirror of habits, manners and tempers of populace. Then we could barely observe living culture of people. One of the ways for reading texts (among them folk texts) is the discovery of hidden reciprocities in the texts. Extracting reciprocities make the texts, hidden layers accessible. According to Drida, this oppositeness is in hierarchy and step – by- step form. In other words, one part is considered superior, and is not only “natural and apparent” but also totally “cultural”. Therefore, we could attain important points about supportive ideology of text through getting the inner reciprocities of any text and distinction of the superior part. In this essay, the inner texts of two folk and famous stories (Shangool and Mangool and Bewildered Nightingale) are contrastively considered on the base of the most famous and detailed narrations. This consideration indicates that folk stories are truthful to the inner contrasts, and recognizing each part of the contrasts leads to better comprehension of the opposite part positions and traits (for example, woman’s position against that of man or mother against stepmother, etc.). In these stories, the narrator mobilizes all story parts to provide the addressee with his desired result, and stimulate cultural and cogitative beliefs to make it evident and logical
Volume 6, Issue 21 (9-2018)
Abstract
Tales are the heritage of the public in literary, intellectual and cultural contexts that have a powerful and creative function. They can be considered the first and most valuable subjective and linguistic creations that are highly prominent in their depths. The narrators have also created stories of events, human concerns and dreams benefiting from artistic structure and multi-dimensional meaning as a permanent function. Yazd area has a special place in this regard. Hence, the diversity of research based on binary opposition and structural analysis in the field of storytelling have reduced the meaning of folk tales. The purpose of this research is to examine the perverse basis of the confrontational structure in Yazdi's popular stories. Research methodology in this paper is descriptive- documentary and analytical. In such an approach, it is clear that the binary opposition in the folk tales have the potential for reversal of meaning, and through the notion of deconstruction, the reproduction of other meanings which corresponds to the mind of the audience and the reading time would be possible.
Fatima Razavi, ,
Volume 7, Issue 26 (8-2014)
Volume 7, Issue 26 (8-2014)
Abstract
Text analysis based on deconstructive approche is one of the new perspective to literary criticism. This view look for contradictions within the text Thereby deconstructing the binary oppositions founded the text and demonstrating that this oppositions do not have firm base. According extensive studies in women speech and writing in different years and cultures, some character are attributed to women as feminist style. in This opposition, regardless of rating, feminist style is in contrast to masculin’s. Feminine characteristics consists of Frequently used forms of expressive language, vague and imprecise language and intensifier, applications and prayers, hailing forms, sentences as opposed to rules of grammar and incomplete sentences, Frequently use of intonation, stop and stress, simple language, detailed writing, Speaking from a position of weakness and lack of authoritarianism and use of processes that do not require a lot of mental activity. this article demonstrates that attributing some of the features to feminine writing do not have solid base and alter within changing social and cultural factors, by analyzing the Memories of Taj-ol-Saltana as feminist narrative and comparing that with memories of Aziz-al-Soltan known by Malijak as masculine narrative which written in same context of Memories of Taj-ol-Saltana. Evidence that led us to this involved of writing from a position of strength, the active voice and use of complex mental processes.
Volume 8, Issue 33 (12-2011)
Abstract
"Tarabi'srebellion"is one of the interesting parts of Jahan-goshaHistory. The analysis of narrative elements of this text can help understanding the spirit of the whole work. Joveyni, the writer, confesses inthe Introduction that by writing history he aimesto perpetuate Mongol's magnitudes. That means the readers encounter with a one-sided narration. In spite of this fact, according to the expectation of readers, the writer tries through some textual tricks to show he has an objective position in history narration. But this target would not be possible by two reasons: the first reason deals with the nature of narration that does not let the creator to take a neutral position. The second reason relates to the intentions that force Joveyni to write his work, i.e., he reduces the history to a panegyric. "Tarabi'srebellion" is one of the texts thatis structurally cracked through a deconstructive approach of reading, so that not only the writer fails to achieve his goal, but also the text stimulates a rebel against itself. Through a creative re-readingof this historical event, this article tries to present a new interpretation and portrait of Tarabi.a reading that can be extended to the whole text.
Issa Amankhani,
Volume 9, Issue 34 (8-2016)
Volume 9, Issue 34 (8-2016)
Abstract
The employment of philosophical/literary theories has become a common thread in the published literary studies in Iran in the recent years. This may be the result of various reasons, for instance, the superior knowledge of theory of these critics over the traditionalists. Although the merits of such studies cannot be denied, their weaknesses should not be simply dismissed. This paper reviews some of the applications of deconstruction—one of the theories favored by many researchers—and their shortcomings. These shortcomings can be categorized under three headings: (1) lack of understanding of the concept of deconstruction—for example, some of the oppositions proposed in these studies stand in contrast to the kind of oppositions Derrida utilizes in his deconstructive studies or, in some cases, external elements such as class, education, etc. are focused on in some of them while for Derrida there is nothing outside the text; (2) reduction and simplification of Derrida’s philosophical propositions to mystery and mysticism; and (3) providing non-deconstructionist interpretations of stories.
Volume 10, Issue 41 (12-2013)
Abstract
This article studies the binary significations of Hafez/Zahed (Pious) in Hafez’s lyrics through a Derridean deconstructive approach. In order to do this, first we outline the deconstructive reading as the theoretical framework of the study. Within this framework, we would explain the Platonic binary oppositions, its effect on Saussurean binary linguistics, and Derrida’s treatment of the oppositions, specifically the binary of the signifier and the signified. Then we deconstruct the binary of Hafez/Zahed and conclude that this binary opposition is unstable and Hafez’s poetry is a self-deconstructive text.
Volume 10, Issue 45 (8-2022)
Abstract
Research background
Ghasemlou, in his book Pathology of Persian Proverbs (2012), has tried to question the constructiveness and positive cultural impact of some of these proverbs with through a novel view, but his research lacks theory and method. In many cases, it only refers to their use and origin of proverbs. Athari, in an article entitled "Analysis of Time and Time Indicators in Proverbs with a Symbolic and Semantic Approach" (2013) has tried to show with a semantic approach how time is represented in a proverb. It can change from prescriptive tense to present tense, so as to form a level of knowledge and awareness in the minds of users. Zulfighari, also in an article entitled "Examination of Persian proverbs at two lexical and syntactic levels" (2008) tries to measure the amount of lexical changes and syntactic displacement as well as the adaptation with a formalistic and statistical point of view. He examines the lexical items in many proverbs.
Objectives, questions, and hypotheses
The research question in this study is: how can the criticism and analysis of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" provide a modern and practical reading of this proverb to cultural users, so that it can bring about social changes? And how it reflects contemporary modernism? In the analysis and pathology of this proverb, how can the theory of deconstruction help? The premise of the article is that the deconstructive reading of this proverb will provide a more modern reading so that more users can read it in accordance with the contemporary social changes in Iranian culture. This reading makes the dual oppositions in the construction of this proverb be shifted. By shifting these dualities, the semantic centrality changes from "collectivism" to "individualism". In other words, the deconstructive analysis of this proverb seeks to remove the semantic emphasis from "collectivism" to "individualism".
Discussion
There is no proverb that does not have an objective or subjective duality. Sometimes, there is an opposing duality in the construction which is easy to understand. In other times, there is a deep double opposition that makes the immediate understanding of the proverb somewhat difficult and complicated. "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" is one of the famous proverbs in the cultural atmosphere of Iranians today. The structure of this proverb, like all other cultural and non-cultural structures, is based on mutual pairs. The opposition on which the structure of this proverb is based is the duality of "individualism" and "collectivism". The opposition is "I" and "we". The opposite duality in the proverb is mental and profound. The superstructure and deep structure of this proverb show that the hidden and visible linguistic actions - condition, order, warning, threat - are aimed at promoting collective values. Being of the same color, which shows the centrality and semantic authority of this proverb, emphasizes more than anything the worldview of submission, imitation, uniformity and loyalty to the group. Although this proverb is a product of specific cultural, historical, social and of course class demands, with its intelligence and tyranny, it has made the individuality, originality and self-awareness of people be considered low value. The internal conflict in the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" can be studied in different fields such as sociology, psychology, history, etc.
Cultural criticism of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" raises questions such as "I" or "we". This cultural question shows one of the strategies and intellectual foundations in a society. The historical criticism of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" also shows that classicism has always emphasized collectivist values and, by proposing predetermined patterns, demands the adaptation of individual behavior to them. Sociological criticism of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" shows the dual opposition of the individual and the society. Durkheim, one of the positivist sociologists, "proposes the duality of the individual and the society". (Durkheim, 2003, p. 45). The economic criticism of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" also shows the endless struggle between communism and modern capitalism.
Conclusion
It is necessary to organize a wise combination of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group", in order to be able to promote a kind of authority, individuality, talent, originality and innovation. The tyranny, authority and hostage-taking of this proverb must be broken so that individuality is freed and creativity and diversity grow. Deconstruction of the "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" can be a more excruciating reading and a more progressive and modern form of this proverb, and of course the necessity of this reading is a reflection of vitality, mobility and social and cultural dynamism of today's Iran. In the new reading, the reversal of priorities has caused the semantic authority to be removed from "homrang" and transferred to the word "Rosva". In other words, if in the traditional readings, "homogeneity" and collectivism were promoted in its essence, in this new and destructive reading, "scandal" or that is, individualism, becomes the center of semantic authority and "individualism" turns into "collectivism" and individuality and its essentials, i.e. freedom, independence, creativity, dynamism, dissent, etc., are emphasized.
References
Durkheim, E. (2003). Individualism and the intellectuals. In M. Bayer and J. Cohen, Emile Durkheim sociologist of modernity. Blackwell press.
Ghasemlou, in his book Pathology of Persian Proverbs (2012), has tried to question the constructiveness and positive cultural impact of some of these proverbs with through a novel view, but his research lacks theory and method. In many cases, it only refers to their use and origin of proverbs. Athari, in an article entitled "Analysis of Time and Time Indicators in Proverbs with a Symbolic and Semantic Approach" (2013) has tried to show with a semantic approach how time is represented in a proverb. It can change from prescriptive tense to present tense, so as to form a level of knowledge and awareness in the minds of users. Zulfighari, also in an article entitled "Examination of Persian proverbs at two lexical and syntactic levels" (2008) tries to measure the amount of lexical changes and syntactic displacement as well as the adaptation with a formalistic and statistical point of view. He examines the lexical items in many proverbs.
Objectives, questions, and hypotheses
The research question in this study is: how can the criticism and analysis of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" provide a modern and practical reading of this proverb to cultural users, so that it can bring about social changes? And how it reflects contemporary modernism? In the analysis and pathology of this proverb, how can the theory of deconstruction help? The premise of the article is that the deconstructive reading of this proverb will provide a more modern reading so that more users can read it in accordance with the contemporary social changes in Iranian culture. This reading makes the dual oppositions in the construction of this proverb be shifted. By shifting these dualities, the semantic centrality changes from "collectivism" to "individualism". In other words, the deconstructive analysis of this proverb seeks to remove the semantic emphasis from "collectivism" to "individualism".
Discussion
There is no proverb that does not have an objective or subjective duality. Sometimes, there is an opposing duality in the construction which is easy to understand. In other times, there is a deep double opposition that makes the immediate understanding of the proverb somewhat difficult and complicated. "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" is one of the famous proverbs in the cultural atmosphere of Iranians today. The structure of this proverb, like all other cultural and non-cultural structures, is based on mutual pairs. The opposition on which the structure of this proverb is based is the duality of "individualism" and "collectivism". The opposition is "I" and "we". The opposite duality in the proverb is mental and profound. The superstructure and deep structure of this proverb show that the hidden and visible linguistic actions - condition, order, warning, threat - are aimed at promoting collective values. Being of the same color, which shows the centrality and semantic authority of this proverb, emphasizes more than anything the worldview of submission, imitation, uniformity and loyalty to the group. Although this proverb is a product of specific cultural, historical, social and of course class demands, with its intelligence and tyranny, it has made the individuality, originality and self-awareness of people be considered low value. The internal conflict in the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" can be studied in different fields such as sociology, psychology, history, etc.
Cultural criticism of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" raises questions such as "I" or "we". This cultural question shows one of the strategies and intellectual foundations in a society. The historical criticism of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" also shows that classicism has always emphasized collectivist values and, by proposing predetermined patterns, demands the adaptation of individual behavior to them. Sociological criticism of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" shows the dual opposition of the individual and the society. Durkheim, one of the positivist sociologists, "proposes the duality of the individual and the society". (Durkheim, 2003, p. 45). The economic criticism of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" also shows the endless struggle between communism and modern capitalism.
Conclusion
It is necessary to organize a wise combination of the proverb "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group", in order to be able to promote a kind of authority, individuality, talent, originality and innovation. The tyranny, authority and hostage-taking of this proverb must be broken so that individuality is freed and creativity and diversity grow. Deconstruction of the "You don't want to be shamed, be the same color as the group" can be a more excruciating reading and a more progressive and modern form of this proverb, and of course the necessity of this reading is a reflection of vitality, mobility and social and cultural dynamism of today's Iran. In the new reading, the reversal of priorities has caused the semantic authority to be removed from "homrang" and transferred to the word "Rosva". In other words, if in the traditional readings, "homogeneity" and collectivism were promoted in its essence, in this new and destructive reading, "scandal" or that is, individualism, becomes the center of semantic authority and "individualism" turns into "collectivism" and individuality and its essentials, i.e. freedom, independence, creativity, dynamism, dissent, etc., are emphasized.
References
Durkheim, E. (2003). Individualism and the intellectuals. In M. Bayer and J. Cohen, Emile Durkheim sociologist of modernity. Blackwell press.
Volume 11, Issue 6 (3-2020)
Abstract
own self dimensions and delegitimize the others’ elements; legitimation, from the semiotic-discursive point of view, is a process that hegemonizes power through discourse articulation. The authors’ aim in this paper is to investigate and identify the way in which the legitimating mechanisms of gendered discourses function in contemporary Persian story literature. Hence, they provide a deconstructive reading of the methodology of Van Leeuwen (2007) based on Laclau and Mouffe (2001) and Derrida (1983) and take advantage of a variety of linguistic tools. Then, in order to analyze the functions of these mechanisms, they go through the “Solok” and purposefully examine some of its parts. Finally, they respond to the research question about how the legitimizing mechanisms of gendered discourses operate and introduce four structures, i.e. simple, compound, complex, and chain, in those mechanisms. Moreover, they show that after gaining and achieving the legitimacy, the gendered discourses step forward to maintain and fix the legitimacy and delegitimize the other explicitly and implicitly- by the way of recontextualization.
1. Introduction
Legitimation is a discursive mechanism that seeks to hegemonize the operation of any discourse. The purpose of this study is to investigate the function of de / legitimation mechanisms of gendered discourses in the contemporary story literature.
The importance of this research can be discussed in three dimensions. First, the researched body is story literature which benefits from the tools that make it more hegemonic than other wirtten texts such as political ones. The second is its methodology which provides a deconstructive reading of Van Leeuwen (2007) theory of legitimation. Finally, it goes beyond the description and tries to explain how discursive legitimation works in the story under study.
The main question is how gendered discourses in the Dolatabadi's Solok try to legitimize own self dimensions and delegitimize the others’ elements. And finally, the hypothesis is that the gendered discourses in Solok try to legitimize their dimensions by changing their articulations, creating discursive nodes, and crystallizing around those nodes, and try to de-legitimize the other by rejecting the signs’ concepts.
2. Methodology
The methodology of this study benefits from the deconstructive reading of the methodology of Van Leeuwen (2007) based on Laclau & Mouffe (2001) and Derrida (1983) and it takes advantage of a variety of linguistic tools.
Van Leeuwen (2007) identified four legitimation mechanisms - each consists of some subcategories - that operates separately or jointly to de / legitimize discourses:
- Authorization: Legitimation by reference to the authority of tradition, custom, law, and/or persons in whom institutional authority of some kind is vested. It has six types: personal authority, expert authority, role model authority, impersonal authority, the authority of tradition, and the authority of conformity.
- Moral evaluation: Legitimation by reference to value systems. It is consisted of evaluation, abstraction, and analogies.
- Rationalization: Legitimation by reference to the goals and uses of institutionalized social action and to the knowledges that society has constructed to endow them with cognitive validity. It could be instrumental or theoretical rationalization, which the former is consisted of goal, means, and effect orientation and the latter of expreintial, scientific, definition, explanation, and prediction.
- Mythopoesis: Legitimation conveyed through narratives whose outcomes reward legitimate actions and punish nonlegitimate actions. By definition, this category is consisted of moral tales, cautionary tales, single determination, and overditermination which in its turn it is of two types: inversion and symbolization.
Derrida (1983) discusses about “deconstruction” in “Letter to a Japaness Friend”. He believes “Deconstruction takes place, it is an event that does not await the deliberation, consciousness, or organisation of a subject, or even of modernity. It deconstructs it-self. It can be deconstructed.”. Then, he emphasizes on the importance of “context”. While describing Derrida in detail, Nojoumian writes: “Derrida believes that the boundaries between discourses are invalid and says that discourses leak into each other” (2016: 56). Thus, the legitimation cannot remain tough and untouchable, because the discourse fixation is limited and temporary, and it collapses at the discourse boundaries - the threshold - and is placed in a paradoxical status.
Moreover, Laclau & Mouffe (2001) define the discourse as to the following:
we will call articulation any practice establishing a relation among elements such that their identity is modified as a result of the articulatory practice. The structured totality resulting from the articulatory practice, we will call discourse. The differential positions, insofar as they appear articulated within a discourse, we will call moments. By contrast, we will call element any difference that is not discursively articulated.
Following Van Leeuwen (2007) we asked the narrator “Why should I accept your narration?” and / or “Why should I accept the gendered discourses as you represented them?”. And finally, having new tools of analysis with regard to the concept of discourse, its articulation, and its unstable boundaries, i.e. the threshold, as well as the deconstructive reading of Van Leeuwen (2007), we analyized of Dolatabadi’s “Solok”.
3. Conclusion
The innovation of this research has two prominent aspects. First, the authors dealt with the story literature which uses a high degree of hegemony and the narrator benefits from a variety of linguistically narrative and aesthetic mechanisms to legitimize his omniscience and narration. Second, the authors methodologically adopted a deconstructive reading of Van Leeuwen (2007) by use of Laclau & Mouffe (2001) and Derrida (1983).
In the analysis, it has been noticed that despite the narrator’s efforts to gain, maintain, and fix the legitimacy for the intended discourses in the story, he had no way but to be caught in paradox. Hence, the research hypothesis of changing the articulation of gendered discourse in SOLOK in order to legitimize their own nodes and simultaneously de-legitimize the other’s dimension is confirmed.
Also, the linguistic structure of de/legitimation mechanisms can be generally presented in four categories: 1) simple: a proposition de/legitimize another proposition, 2) compound: at least two propositions de/legitimize the other proposition, 3) complex (nested): a proposition that is de/legitimizing the other proposition, has a de/legitimation structure in itself. 4) chainlike: sequences of propositions that move one after the other in the direction of legitimizing, maintaining and fixing it.
Parsa Yaghoobi Janbeh Saraei,
Volume 11, Issue 44 (4-2018)
Volume 11, Issue 44 (4-2018)
Abstract
Socio-religious discourses, based on polarist epistemology, form the epistemic world into a system of Center and the Periphery and then subject the periphery to suppression and silence. This practice has extended to most signifying systems, including literary genres. Among the literary genres, the super-genre of Iranian-Islamic mysticism, titled love mysticism displays a different account of the construction of the periphery and the binary system governing that construction. In this paper, along with introducing the construction of the margin and its examples in the dominant Socio-religious discourses, the different accounts of the mystics are classified and interpreted with the reasons for each of them. The result shows that the mystics apply a deconstructive reading, building their argument on the unitarian discourse of love mysticism, the ontological requirement of the existence and presence of margins, the necessity of a romantic relationship, the denial of mediation, and similar reasons, to take the three fixed categories of the peripheral, including humans in the general sense, the un-prostrating, and the unreasoning, from the margins of the system to its center. Then, on another level, via a dialectical reading and the suspension of the objectifying process, they go beyond the binary of the center and the periphery. The suspension of the objectifying process in mystics’ representations is the equalization of the center and the periphery, such as the equality of disbelief and belief, the world and the hereafter, and so on. Although the function of these readings in the social context is a change ...
Volume 13, Issue 4 (10-2022)
Abstract
Authorization is a process in narration that according which the narrator constructs her/ his own legitimation and narration using the discursive articulations. The authors’ aim in this paper is to investigate the linguistic processes of development, maintenance and fixation of authorization which the female and male narrators use in the narrations. Hence, they provided a deconstructive reading of the authorization by Van Leeuwen (2007) based on Laclau and Mouffe (2001) and Derrida (1983). Then, in order to identify the linguistic tools of development, maintenance and fixation processes of the personal authority, they went through the “Se-Ketab” by Pirzad and “Solok” by Dolatabadi and purposefully examined those parts. Finally, it was found that Pirzad and Dolatabadi try to legitimize their own dimensions by using their selves and others’ positions, creating discursive nodes, and crystallizing around them. At the same time, they try to delegitimize by rejecting the meanings of the signs from others’ narratives. Also, on a larger scale, it was revealed that the two narrators’ self-representation was different; Pirzad constituted the discursive “We” and Dolatabadi an omniscient narrator. Neither of these two narrators could escape the paradox.
Volume 13, Issue 54 (3-2017)
Abstract
Among the elements of ambiguity in postmodern novels, at first this article tries to identify the one which highlights and reinforces more the ambiguity in this genre. Then, these features are divided in two main categories, to say structural and content elements. These factors are already the subcategories of twofold approach of this article. By analyzing one of the contemporary novels of Persian literature entitled “Hiss” by Mohammad Reza Kateb as the corpus of present study, the author aims to explain the following question: regarding the fact that the so-called element is a kind of barrier to achieve a unified narration in this novel, which element of postmodern’s ambiguity result in uncertainty and ambiguity in this novel and orient in to this direction?
Volume 13, Issue 54 (3-2017)
Abstract
The core theme of Showhar-e Ahou Khanom is the woman and her place in a society in transition. At first look, it seems that this novel intends to rehabilitate the lost place of Iranian women and vindicate their violated rights by the Masculism discourses. The critics believe that this novel in its turn is a kind of Requiem for Iranian women and the first attempt of Iranian feminist movement in Persian literature. Adopting a post structuralist reading and A to intra textual evidences, it is possible to decipher ideology and hidden signification which underlies the text. Thus, based on this approach, this novel is highly influenced by masculism discourse. The ideal woman of the story is a marginalized character without any social and dynamic feature. She is in fact an explicit image of the house wife or the subject of the spouse. Dominant masculism discourse of this novel supports this passive woman who obeys totally any rule of this atmosphere. Another character of the story is a woman being considered as a serious threat to the secure world under the control of masculism discourse as she wants to move from traditional and already dictated roles and demands the minimal social and civil freedom. She loses her place in favor of the traditional character /woman of the story and at last she has an excluded personality in the cycle of story. The dominant ideology of this novel as the architect of social order could never abide the aggression and violation of modernist currents and suppresses the aggressor (the second woman) and demonstrates her fragile place as lame, seductive, and an anti –social element by demoting her as an antagonist.
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.
Abdullah Albughobaish,
Volume 17, Issue 65 (4-2024)
Volume 17, Issue 65 (4-2024)
Abstract
As a different strategy for analyzing the texts, deconstruction violates and decentralizes their explicit meaning, bringing out the hidden meanings by finding the hidden contradictions in the texts. The application of such a strategy in the analysis of Persian texts can reveal special aspects of them and approach the intellectual structure of the authors. This paper revolves around deconstructing the short story “Hozour” (Presence) written by the contemporary Iranian writer Abuturab Khosrawi. Based on the study, there is a deconstructive relationship between presence and absence in the whole text. Despite the obvious title of the story, which is "Presence", the central idea is absence and marginalized matter in it reaches the level of presence. The instability in the corresponding relationship between the signifier and the signified and then the lack of meaning of the signifiers, the lack of initiation in the text, the reversal of the functions and positions of the signifiers in the text, and the lack of the names of the characters are considered as examples of decentralization from the centralized discourse of the text. In the light of this unstable relationship, the signifiers in the text have been disconnected from the final meaning, and thus, the meaning has been dispersed; one of the results of such situation is an aporia in accepting the definitive meaning of the text, so that the reader is no longer able to determine the final meaning. Displacement of presence and absence and the instability of meaning have cast a shadow even on the descriptions of the text and the locations of the characters and have violated the text from within.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
As a different strategy for analyzing the texts, deconstruction violates and decentralizes their explicit meaning, bringing out the hidden meanings by finding the hidden contradictions in the texts. The application of such a strategy in the analysis of Persian texts can reveal special aspects of them and approach the intellectual structure of the authors. This paper revolves around deconstructing the short story “Hozour” (Presence) written by the contemporary Iranian writer Abuturab Khosrawi. Based on the study, there is a deconstructive relationship between presence and absence in the whole text. Despite the obvious title of the story, which is "Presence", the central idea is absence and marginalized matter in it reaches the level of presence. The instability in the corresponding relationship between the signifier and the signified and then the lack of meaning of the signifiers, the lack of initiation in the text, the reversal of the functions and positions of the signifiers in the text, and the lack of the names of the characters are considered as examples of decentralization from the centralized discourse of the text. In the light of this unstable relationship, the signifiers in the text have been disconnected from the final meaning, and thus, the meaning has been dispersed; one of the results of such situation is an aporia in accepting the definitive meaning of the text, so that the reader is no longer able to determine the final meaning. Displacement of presence and absence and the instability of meaning have cast a shadow even on the descriptions of the text and the locations of the characters and have violated the text from within.
Findings and Conclusion
The short story "Hozour" (Presence) was analyzed constructively. The researcher questioned the supposed message of the text by noting the contradictions. As a result, it was concluded that the main theme of the story is not "presence" but "absence". This conclusion may change with further readings and interpretations by other researchers. The text clearly presents a duality, highlighting the ownership of the house by the husband and wife, and the absence of ownership by the old woman. Furthermore, it emphasizes the superiority of the husband and wife over the old woman regarding the house. However, the reader finds out through the deconstruction of the story that it is possible to destabilize such a duality due to the suppressed elements in the text. This issue is manifested both in the reversal of the indicative function of the title and in other examples that were discussed. The aforementioned analysis suggests that the title of the text does not convey a straightforward interpretation of "presence"; instead, it conceals an underlying connotation that the text attempted to conceal. In addition to the semantic instability and due to dissemination in the text, the difference and distance of the apparent meaning from the hidden meanings and due to aporia, instability has been formed in the functions, situations, techniques, devices and literary possibilities of the text. Despite asserting ownership of the house, the characters could not establish a relationship with their neighbors and friends, and at the same time, having the key as a tool to resolve the conflicts could not prove the truth of their claim. The constable also found an opposite function and deviated from the function that the husband and wife expected from him and decentered them. As a result, what was presented as the alleged conversation between husband and wife was neutralized and questioned by the same devices used. Other examples of this semantic displacement include the lack of character names, the contradictory meaning of lighting, and the marginalized but central position in the text. Through the constructive study of Persian literary texts, we can get other meanings that will be effective in understanding the remaining aspects of the texts. Moreover, such a strategy can also bring us closer to the deep intellectual structures of the authors.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
As a different strategy for analyzing the texts, deconstruction violates and decentralizes their explicit meaning, bringing out the hidden meanings by finding the hidden contradictions in the texts. The application of such a strategy in the analysis of Persian texts can reveal special aspects of them and approach the intellectual structure of the authors. This paper revolves around deconstructing the short story “Hozour” (Presence) written by the contemporary Iranian writer Abuturab Khosrawi. Based on the study, there is a deconstructive relationship between presence and absence in the whole text. Despite the obvious title of the story, which is "Presence", the central idea is absence and marginalized matter in it reaches the level of presence. The instability in the corresponding relationship between the signifier and the signified and then the lack of meaning of the signifiers, the lack of initiation in the text, the reversal of the functions and positions of the signifiers in the text, and the lack of the names of the characters are considered as examples of decentralization from the centralized discourse of the text. In the light of this unstable relationship, the signifiers in the text have been disconnected from the final meaning, and thus, the meaning has been dispersed; one of the results of such situation is an aporia in accepting the definitive meaning of the text, so that the reader is no longer able to determine the final meaning. Displacement of presence and absence and the instability of meaning have cast a shadow even on the descriptions of the text and the locations of the characters and have violated the text from within.
Findings and Conclusion
The short story "Hozour" (Presence) was analyzed constructively. The researcher questioned the supposed message of the text by noting the contradictions. As a result, it was concluded that the main theme of the story is not "presence" but "absence". This conclusion may change with further readings and interpretations by other researchers. The text clearly presents a duality, highlighting the ownership of the house by the husband and wife, and the absence of ownership by the old woman. Furthermore, it emphasizes the superiority of the husband and wife over the old woman regarding the house. However, the reader finds out through the deconstruction of the story that it is possible to destabilize such a duality due to the suppressed elements in the text. This issue is manifested both in the reversal of the indicative function of the title and in other examples that were discussed. The aforementioned analysis suggests that the title of the text does not convey a straightforward interpretation of "presence"; instead, it conceals an underlying connotation that the text attempted to conceal. In addition to the semantic instability and due to dissemination in the text, the difference and distance of the apparent meaning from the hidden meanings and due to aporia, instability has been formed in the functions, situations, techniques, devices and literary possibilities of the text. Despite asserting ownership of the house, the characters could not establish a relationship with their neighbors and friends, and at the same time, having the key as a tool to resolve the conflicts could not prove the truth of their claim. The constable also found an opposite function and deviated from the function that the husband and wife expected from him and decentered them. As a result, what was presented as the alleged conversation between husband and wife was neutralized and questioned by the same devices used. Other examples of this semantic displacement include the lack of character names, the contradictory meaning of lighting, and the marginalized but central position in the text. Through the constructive study of Persian literary texts, we can get other meanings that will be effective in understanding the remaining aspects of the texts. Moreover, such a strategy can also bring us closer to the deep intellectual structures of the authors.
Saeede Mazloumian, Bahareh Jalali Farahani,
Volume 17, Issue 68 (2-2025)
Volume 17, Issue 68 (2-2025)
Abstract
In the play Death of Yazdgerd, Bahram Beyzai challenges the correction of historical narratives about the death of Yazdgerd. The characters improvise im/plausible micronarratives about the king’s murder. The play, investigates on one hand, the grand narrative in which the divine power bestows the king the right to rule people and on the other hand the micronarratives which dispute the logic of this absolutist monarchy. The research also demonstrates Beyzai’s techniques to deconstruct the grand narrative and lower it to the level of micronarratives.
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