Investigating the Application of the Theory of Mental Spaces in the Analysis of Persian Prose Literary Texts (case study: selected part of the novel: Ja'y-e x'ali-e soluc' )

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Postdoc. Researcher in Persian Language and Literature, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran(Corresponding Author)

2 Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The issue of the present research is the application of the theory of mental spaces in the analysis of Persian prose literary texts. The theory of mental spaces is one of the tools of the cognitive approach to the study of texts which was proposed by Gilles Fauconnier in the second half of the twentieth century and then expanded in the following years within the framework of the theory of conceptual blending. This theory can be useful in analyzing the linguistic, ideological, and mind-based dimensions of literary texts. The aforementioned theory considers the literary text as the result of the formation of mental spaces and the establishment of connections between them. This theory, relying on the final gestalt and the narrative style of the text, tries to trace the various components constructed by the author and the readers in the text. In this research, a selected part of the novel Ja'y-e x'ali-e soluc' has been analyzed and analyzed as a case study. The results of this research show that the theory of mental spaces can help the researchers in aspects in the analysis and criticism of Persian prose literary texts such as: analyzing the narrative flow, analyzing referential pronouns in character-based texts, and stylistic application related to the mechanism of characters.

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