A Narrative structure analysis of Jamal and Jalal Mathnavi Romance Based on Vladimir Propp Model

One of the predominant methods of structural analysis for tales is Vladimir Propp's morphological approach which is bulit based on character function. In the current study, via considering Propp's theory, Jamal and Jalal poetic romance (by Mohammad Nazl Abadi), which is an unknown yet important literary work of the 9^th century AH, has been morphologically and structurally analyzed. Beyond its poetic and narrative appearance, this poetic romance is full of secretive, spiritual, and Ayyari themes having a unique and distinctive structure among Persian poetic romances. In terms of function and character, this poetic romance is in line with Propp's theory. Although in story moves we encounter with lack of sequence and some funtions deletion, due to secretive and spiritual themes of the tale we confront with functions not mentioned in Propp's model namely, dream function. Among Propp`s seven characters, some of the characters have been blended or removed due to function similarity and story necessity. They can be classified into four categories: hero, princess, helper, and evil. Some of these characters have overlaps with the rest roles.
Introduction:
Narratology is a branch of literary criticism which addresses the analysis of narrative texts that has a structuralist approach and aims to find the system that governs the structure of the narrative. Structuralists have attempted to extract a pattern from each story and, then, create a macro narrative structure from these patterns that is applicable to any literary narrative text. The structural analysis of the story, despite the legacy left from Aristotle until the present time, almost started from the work that Vladimir Propp's did on Russian anecdotes (Scholes, 2013: 91). The morphological method of Vladimir Propp's is one of the existing methods of structural analysis of the story, which is based on the actions of the characters. By analyzing the Russian magical legends, Propp made a dramatic change in the structure of the text as long as other narrative works like Novels, stories, and all kinds of legends can be analyzed according to his method. In the analysis and structural analysis of Iranian stories, attention was also paid to the morphological pattern of Propp, and some ancient stories and oral narratives were analyzed based on this pattern. In this article, according to the Propp theory, the morphological and structural analysis of Jamal va Jalal by Mohammad Nazl Abadi's, which is one of the most important and unknown works of the 9^th century Hijri, has been analyzed until the efficiency and structural compliance of this work with the Propp model has been evaluated. Jamal and Jalal, beyond its romantic and narrative appearance, is full of folk, noble, mystical, and mystical themes, which has a distinct and unique structure among the romantic poems of Persian literature. Knowing the narrative structure of this literary work and achieving the narrative pattern that governs it in the manner of Propp is the problem and the main goal of this research.
The research questions are:
- To what extent does the poem of Jamal and Jalal correspond to Propp's theory and morphology?
- What are the characteristics of Jamal and Jalal in terms of narration and story building components and what rules govern its structure?
- What pattern does the structure of Jamal and Jalal follow?
Methodology:
The research method in this research is descriptive-analytical and library-based (documents) based on Vladimir Propp's morphological theory.
Results and Discussion:
Jamal and Jalal, like most romances and narrative texts, has a special chain of structure and pattern, and it has the ability to be criticized from the point of view of narratology and structuralist theories until a specific pattern and design is extracted from that. One of the best ways to analyze the structure of the story is the morphological model of Vladimir Propp's, which is based on the actions of the characters. In this article, after the preliminary presentation in the field of the theoretical foundations of the research, the analysis and morphological and systematic analysis of the Jamal and Jalal has been done based on Vladimir Propp's morphological method in order to identify the narrative pattern governing the story and their characterization method. In this paper, followed by a preliminary presentation in the field of theoretical foundations of the research, the analysis of Jamal and Jalal was studied based on Vladimir propp's morphology. The story of the poem of Jamal and Jalal starts with a feeling of need of wife and child and, then, with the birth of the child (Jalal), Numerous moves that lead to the development and expansion of the story have been observed.
Conclusion:
In the morphological analysis of the mystical and romantic system of Jamal and Jalal, it was found that this system corresponds to Propp's theory to a large extent; Although in terms of actions, sequence and personality, it has differences with it. In the construction of the narrative of the system, some of these interactions have a fundamental and main position. The main and fundamental actions that play a pivotal role in the formation of the overall structure of the story are: (aqγδC↑ADFHIMNKW_*^*Z↓X). Although many of Propp's own works are present in the narrative structure of the story, they do not have a fundamental role in the main framework of the story and they can be removed. Due to the mysterious and mystical nature of the story, works such as dreams and mystic annihilation have been added to the Propp's works. The two factors of need and the wickedness of the wicked have caused movement and upset the balance of the story. The story consists of nine movements. The movements of the story correspond to Propp's chart one that is; one movement directly follows another movement. The first, second, fourth, and ninth movements of the story are developed without any of the (H-I) and (M-N) interactions. The third movement is expanded with a pair of (M-N) and (H-I) actions, and the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth movements are expanded with (H-I) cares. Many characters play a role in advancing the narrative, all of which are secret. The characters in the story can be classified into four general categories: hero, princess, helper, and villain, which somewhat corresponds to the division of Propp's. Each of these characters have special characteristics and traits, and some of them overlap with the rest of the roles in some parts of the story.