Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature, Arts and Humanities

Abstract How did comparative literature emerge in Iran? What is the mission of comparative literature in Iran? Where do we stand in the realm of comparative literature in today's world? Has comparative literature research in Iran been based on clear and systematic research theory and methods? What have been our literary and cultural achievements in the past two decades when comparative literature has quantitatively grown in Iran? Do we have a roadmap? Do we have an institution or a center as a scientific authority that will show us the right path whenever we go the wrong way, or are we floundering in the heart of darkness? Has comparative literature played a role in the growth and prosperity, promoting the globalization of the rich treasure of Persian literature, and in introducing and recognizing oneself and others? Do we really need comparative literature in Iran or not? 

Abstract From Jung's point of view, the process of individuation is a kind of maturation and psychological development during which the center of personality shifts from "I" to the "Self". Literature has a long-standing connection with the human psyche, and similar to dreams and myths, poetry and art are expressions of innermost human desires and aspirations. As a mystic thinker, with the purpose for human unity, Molavi tries to offers a refined model for an individuated person in the story of “Hosh-Roba Fortress”. In King Lear, Shakespeare too, portrays a man in a journey of inner progress. It can be said that both Molavi and Shakespeare portray the circular movement of self-discovery in the form of beautiful human pictures in these two works. In the present essay, an attempt is made to do a comparative analysis of the process of individuation in the story of "Hosh-Roba Fortress" and King Lear. The findings show that the journey of each one of the heroes is a symbolic representation of their psychological search for individuality during which the younger prince and King Lear go through a difficult path in their journey from the conscious to the unconscious, experience an encounter with the unconscious forces, reach the final integration with the anima archetype and establish a connection with the hero's’ consciousness in a way that, with the guidance of the wise old man, they put behind the inner shadows and outer personas and finally find their selves and, according to Rumi, “They are born again”.

Abstract The painting "Two Conflicting Sages" attributed to Aqa Mirak in Khamsa Tahmasbi's edition is one of the works in which the painter, as the author, has created an additional meaning out of the original work. The purpose of the present paper is to identify the hidden layers of meaning in this painting. To do so, the research employs the framework of Panofsky's iconology via a descriptive analytical method. The paper seeks to find out which hidden layers of meaning exist in the painting. The results show that the painting has originated from spiritual and religious beliefs, particularly those of Islamic wisdom. Agha Mirak, being both influenced by this mystical view and being closely connected to Shah Tahmasb's court, while showing the splendor and majesty of the court with the help of visual symbols, has portrayed the conflict of the two sages in the court scene, and thereby, has reflected moral messages to the king and the courtiers in an esoteric and indirect way, lest their excessive prejudices cause the destruction of the monarchy. The image represents the key conflict between the reason and illusion, a conflict which exists within all human beings and leads to pride and neglect. Illusion is like a beautiful flower whose appearance is agreeable to reason, but in reality, it leads to human failure.

Abstract The current research is an interdisciplinary study on the role of literature and intellectuals against the authoritarian government in the former Soviet Union. The October Revolution caused fundamental changes in the political and social structure of Russia. These changes and developments happened while the society and especially the intellectuals hoped that, with the establishment of the Bolshevik government, the state of civil liberties in the country would improve. However, with the emergence of Stalin's tyrannical policies, the possibility for any criticism against the mainstream policies became very bounded. Osip Mandelstam can be called as one of the boldest opposition intellectuals in the Stalin era who, despite being aware of the consequences of opposing and protesting against Stalin's policies, used his artistic medium, poetry, to criticize the existing situation in order to inform people. In his works, issues such as freedom of expression, the right to protest, and the rejection of public inaction are emphasized. To answer the main question of the research about Mandelstam's role and position taking against tyranny and autocracy and to investigate his campaigning performance and relationship with the government and the society and as a prominent representative of intellectuals opposed to the government of the given era, the essay draws on the method of qualitative content analysis to examine the content of Mandelstam’s works, some of which have been translated from Russian to Persian for the first time. The main focus of this interdisciplinary research is the relationship between literature and politics and the theoretical framework is based on the theories of Said and Gramsci. The findings indicate that Mandelstam, through his works, played an important and informative social role against the authoritarian regime of his time.

Abstract Bakhtiyar Ali is one of the famous contemporary Kurdish writers whose literary works represent sufferings of the Kurdish people in the lands occupied by the totalitarian governments, and on a larger scale, the image of the oppressed humanity of the contemporary man in the era of the hegemony of war and violence. The novel Bandar Fayli, which depicts the genocide and deportation of the Fayli Kurds, is a true account of the destruction of the life of a Fayli child whose people faced denial of their identity. The fate of the child and his mother is caught in the Baathists' vortex of dehumanization resulting in suffering, lack of freedom and the trampling of their human dignity. In the absence of research on the phenomenon of dehumanization that occurs in the novel, the present research is concerned with the ways in which Bandar Fayli represents the forms and mechanisms of dehumanization and their connection with other related concepts. To this aim, the author has used a descriptive-analytical method informed by a psychological study of the dehumanization features in this novel. Ethnic dehumanization, double dehumanization, mechanical dehumanization, animal dehumanization, demonization, and dementalization are among the most frequent manifestations of dehumanization in the novel and serve as a pretext to justify acts of genocide and deportation as means to continue the process of mental and physical torture to exert the utmost control over the victim's fate, in a way that has accelerated the cycle of destruction of the character's personality as a suppressed subject.

Abstract Organizational structure creates a model for relations among different roles in each organization. It consists of several dimensions, four of which, that is, task division, specialization, focus and control are more prominent. Political framework is one of the formative models of the theory of organizational structure. Seyyed Mahdi Shojaee's political satirical novel, Democracy or DemoCrazy depicts the relations between the government and the people in a symbolic region. A reading of the novel in the light of the theory of organizational structure reveals the political structure of the world it depicts, and the laws and ideologies of its different rulers. The present research has an interdisciplinary approach and applies a content analysis method to critique the characteristics of governance in this novel from the perspective of organizational structure in management science. The findings show that the political structure in the novel consists of three main parts: the simple modernist structure, the destructive democratic structure and a seemingly cultured democratic structure. The change of organizational structure in this tripartite system ensures the change of some dimensions of the political structure.

Abstract Seasoning his dialogues with politics, philosophy and various other subjects, Abbas Nalbandian presents his argument about the mirage of truth through poetic and literary expressions. Although Nalbandian has been influenced by Western philosophers and playwrights, he has been successful in localizing such influences in his works. Reading David and Uriah from the perspective of the Nietzschean Ubermensch shows that not only does Nalbandian transform this concept into an artistic work, but also he uses it both as an ideological springboard and a structural element in organizing his play. The present paper emphasizes the importance of reading David and Uriah through a Nietzschean interpretive framework and explores the role that Nietzsche’s thought plays in this work. The methodology is, therefore, comparative and interdisciplinary. We discuss the ways in which Nietzsche’s idea contributes to a new understanding of David and Uriah’s main character and the play’s artistic form. Moreover, the paper shows he ways inwhich this knowledge provides readers with a better understanding of the playwright as an artist and an individual. The findings of this study demonstrate how Nalbandian, by drawing on Nitzchean philosophy, has localized and appropriated the concept of Ubermensch in David and Uriah and, thus, enriched Persian literature.

Abstract In interdisciplinary studies, the dialogue between philosophical topics and textual data in literature is of great importance, and in the meantime, the examination of Bakhtin's thought system in the field of philosophical anthropology and the theory of "otherness" is one of the important topics in this field. It emphasizes the need to stay away from the bipolar system and refuse to recognize "self" without interacting with "the other". On the other hand, literature and especially the novel, through the representation of the human world in the text, is a suitable platform for understanding this confrontation and dialogue in cultures and societies. Therefore, this research tries to do an intertextual analysis between the two narratives of "Malakout" by Bahram Sadeghi and " Miyan Hofrehaye Khali " of the Peiman Ismaili, focusing on the selection based on the common theme of the doctor's mission to the remote city, to investigate the institution of "self" and "Another" has dealt with two works with a different genre approach and will reach the conclusion that these two poles, in both of them, in addition to the process of change and transformation, are somewhat fluid in the narrative of "Malakout". In addition, this institution has a human and abstract aspect in the narrative of the Kingdom, but in the story " Miyan Hofrehaye Khali" it takes on more of an ethnic and cultural aspect.

Abstract Literature and music have a close and complementary relationship with each other. In performance, poetry is the infrastructure of mind and the language of music, with which it has a strong connection. In fact, what melodies and musical instruments express through the sounds, the poetry manifests more tangibly via words. In this interdisciplinary research, the induction of sounds, due to the repetition of consonants and vowels, has been examined in the light of Murice Gerammont's theory and via a descriptive-analytical approach. Accordingly, the pragmatic axis shows the angles of inducing meaning and, more importantly, the effectiveness of poetry and the way music and poetry influence each other, which is examined via the introduction of examples of vocal music and, specifically, Akhavan Sales's "Dandelion" performed by Mohammad Reza Shajarian. Each vocal division in Iranian music has its own characteristics and expresses different moods, and both the composer and the singer should select the music division and vocal corners with the consideration of the meaning and the content of the selected poems. The results show that sounds and words, with clarity, brilliance and darkness, have been successful in conveying the two discourses of slight hope and overwhelming despair and that it is the sound which determines the color of the feeling of the music and instruments and makes the poetry and musical works more effective and lasting.

Abstract Metalepsis that causes transgression between levels of narrative, can be transmitted from one medium to another as a special type of narrative. At the origin, it appears in a different form at the destination.Although the properties of metalepsis have been considered in the postmodern situation, extensive research on it in the ancient cultures of the world shows that the use of this method in literature and art has a long history. In today's era, since the desire to read and see postmodern works has increased, the need to recognize and adapt the characteristics of these works in literature and cinema is also developing. The present study has examined this procedure from literature to cinema and its concern is to investigate the transmission of written metalepsis to visual metalepsis. The present study aimed to analyze the signs and effects of metalepsis, including immersion, aesthetic illusion, and how to break the fourth wall in the transition from literature to cinema. The research method is qualitative with a narrative research approach. Therefore, the novel and the movie The Book Thief have been studied in a comparative way to identify the cognitive schemas of the levels in the work. The result shows that in the novel with continued metalepsis,we usually encounter even minimal transgression and sometimes stronger signs. In the film, since most of the narrative is carried out by a neutral camera, unlike in the novel, we do not encounter continued metalepsis, and only occasionally does metalepsis occur with intense and obvious signs.

Abstract By focusing on pain as a phenomenon that deprives individuals of meaning, the present study illuminates how the free play of imagination in art is able to defy pain and help individuals attain meaning. As an interdisciplinary research in literature and cinema and through a comparative approach, this study applies Scarry’s notion of pain in The Body in Pain, the Making and Unmaking of the World to Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading (1935) and Von Trier’s Dogville (2003). To do so, first Scarry’s definition of pain (torture) in physical and verbal act is presented. Then disruption of meaning by pain is discussed. Third, the transformative role of pain is explained to show how pain can embed in itself ways to pass through pain. Finally, the free play of imagination (art) is discussed to clarify whether and how it can help attain meaning in pain. Through close reading, these definitions and notions are applied to the selected works and especially to their main characters, Cincinnatus and Grace. In conclusion it is asserted that Nabokov and Von Trier, although different artists in the first glance, share notable grounds in their oeuvre. Enjoying Brechtian alienation, game play, parody and complex defamiliarizing narration, they create a diegetic world surpassing ideological, social and psychological issues encompassing characters/events that are not clear copies of reality but the result of the free play of imagination to undo the annihilating power of pain.

Abstract Stand-up Comedy is a type of audio-visual art that has received serious attention in recent decades. It is a combination of verbal and dramatic arts derived from Oral literature and deeply ingrained in folk culture. Stand-up comedy encompasses different forms of art and performance such as storytelling, acting, music, presenting and oration. Comedians engage with the audience directly on stage, regaling them with amusing anecdotes about life and societal matters, inducing laughter and providing a mental release. The findings of this survey indicate that owing to the distinctive features of stand-up comedy, this form of art will gain significant popularity in future. This particular form of contemporary art serves various purposes including, entertainment, education, creating social solidarity and empathy, as well as critiquing political and societal issues. Its notable interartistic features encompass storytelling, being audience's oriented, being critical, improvisational, flexibility, and drawing on informal language and colloquialisms. The present article explores the history of stand-up comedy in Iran, its functions, its structure and defining characteristics. Additionally, the article delves into the significant themes, elements, styles, and techniques employed by comedians in crafting their performances, and three cases of Iranian performances are analyzed as examples.

Abstract Asghar Farhadi's two Academy Awards and Kazuo Ishiguro's Nobel Prize in Literature demonstrate how successful both authors' works have been in the West despite their Asian origin. The fact that they concentrate on similar social concerns in their works adds to the relevance of this connection. Moving away from the past traditions seems inevitable for both of these authors. They have, thus, portrayed progressive characters that, despite their deep ties to the past, struggle to follow modernity in practice. There are startling similarities in these characters' mindset and actions which this article attempts to shed light on by comparing Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (1989) and An Artist of the Floating World (1986) with Asghar Farhadi's The Fireworks Wednesday (1384) and The Salesman (1394). Using semiotic theories, characters representing tradition and modernity are first identified in each work. Then, the article explains the ways in which these characters consider the freedom of choice as both their as well as others' rights, or in Farzin Vahdat's terms, giving value to subjectivity and universality in modernity.

Abstract The Canterbury Tales, the abiding work of Geoffrey Chaucer (?-1400 AC.), the eminent and popular poet of fourteenth century and the father of English poetry, is recently translated to Farsi by Alireza Mahdipour. The book is published by Cheshmeh publishing house in 2022. The Canterbury Tales is one of the most popular poems in the history of English litearture whose literary techniques and terms and content have not loss their aura during ages and whose popularity have increased as the years have passed by. Chaucer is a funny and gifted poet who devoted his last years to write The Canterbury Tales to eternalize his fame and the result is 17000 lines of verse. Alireza Mahdipour has Transled it to Persian poetry trting to be faithful to the content and the rhyme and meter. This review will survey and analyze the book and at the end will qualify some points on the translation.