Investigating the Personality Element in the Historical Novel of Amineh Based on the Theory of Chatman

According to Seymour Chatman, who is a contemporary theorist and critic, Character is so pivotal that it plays a key role in linking the other elements of the story to the formation of the narrative and engaging the audience's mind with being adapted to different situations, unraveling, and adventure. This is a view, which is against the views of formalists and those who follow structuralism. In his view, it is the personality that creates the action and the situation and not the other way around. In this case, there is no difference between classic and new stories. The present analytical research of the historical novel Amineh based on Chatman's theory indicates that other narrative elements such as objects, place and time, actions, etc. reach the narrative form and logic based on his presence and the dimensions of his behavior (mental discourse and semantic world) make the story justifiable and believable. This active characterization of Iranian women in the 12^th century goes beyond the socio-political behavior of many men. This is due to the fact that, this lady is thinking of war with foreign enemies such as Afghans and, furthermore, she is associated with various influential personalities in the history and destiny of the country, such as Karim Khan, Nader, Agham Mohammad Khan, and so on. She engages in diplomacy with foreigners, as well as in business, thought, and the creation of an intellectual mindset that revives national and social rights.
Introduction:
Seymour Chatman considers personality independently important because it is the central core and part of what is interesting to the audience. This meant, positioning unraveling knots and creating incidents. In other words, the personality that forms the situation, incident, and plot means the mentality that governs the narrative. Chatman's opinion is against the view of formalists and some structuralists who, due to following Aristotle, consider character to be the product of a plan and conspiracy, which affects people and fictional situations. In Chatman's thought, language and words give expression to personality, and along with other components that make up the narrative, it gives value and identity to the objective function of the story or narrative. At the same time, he is on the belief that in distinguishing the influential and incident-creating or knot-creating dimensions and directions of the personality, in the process of dialogues, story complications and incidents. According to him, it is the personality that makes its action and its temporal, spatial, and spiritual quality, not the actions. In this case, there is no difference between classic and new stories.
Methodology:
Based on the descriptive-analytical method, the present research is an attempt to critically analyze the historical novel Amineh, which has reported an era of about a century in Iran's social history. Its scope starts from the last years of the Safavid period and covers the period after Zandiyeh. Like most historical narratives written in the last hundred years, this novel is character-oriented and to some extent incident-oriented. Our effort is that the main character in the novel Amineh, who is a lady with the same name, has several social, lyrical, martial, and political dimensions. In addition to that, it is narrated by "Masoud Behnoud" to be analyzed according to the theory of Seymour Chatman, a contemporary American critic and narratologist. According to this theorist, story elements such as events, time, place, and personality are among the most useful elements of narration and story since the situation, language, dialogue, angle of view, story knot, story idea, and plot are formed in direct connection with these elements, especially the personality.
Results and Discussion:
This pen has tried to show its analysis of the historical novel Amineh that is portrayed by the author of this work based on the mentality and ideals of the 20th and 21st century human being. This also fits the mentality of today's educated reader. Amineh is both a beautiful lady and a teenager who is well aware of virtue due to being born in a famous family. She knows both riding and shooting. She is both a swordsman and a slinger. Interestingly, this teenage girl has the ability to manage and lead a group of brave girls. Her great intelligence and success make her an ideal lady. In addition, he is familiar with some foreign languages ​​because he has a French mother. At the same time, she is a cultured, educated and capable person who shows a lot of merit and competence in various fields and the end of tens of years later provides the ground so that her grandson can establish a new chain in Iran.
Conclusion:
In this historical novel, Amineh, the place, time, actions and incidents of the main and multi-dimensional character of "Amineh", which reach the form of a story, This means that Amineh's behavior in the author's report becomes a narrative that has personality, incident, language, point of view, narrative knot, plot, story logic and mental flow as well. On the other hand, this behavior during Amineh's relatively long life and her very different romantic, martial, social and political human and historical events creates a mental discourse that is very attractive and readable for the audience. In other words, the meaningful and emotional world of this type of active personality behavior of Iranian women in the 12th century is considered so important and audible that it is even beyond the socio-political behavior of many men. On the one hand, she is thinking of war and talks with neighbors and foreign aggressors such as Afghans and Europeans. In another view, this figure is related to many influential figures in the history and destiny of the country, such as Karim Khan Zand, Nader Shah Afshar, Mohammad Hassan Khan Qajar, Agham Mohammad Khan, etc. The author makes such a character out of this lady that she is a lover for famous political-military figures in her youth and she is a fighter herself, a warrior who can stop the Afghan enemy army on the way to Qazvin and face defeat. Years later, her daughter got married to Karim Khan, and her adopted daughter married Nader Shah Afshar, and tried to transfer the kingdom to her family and dominate the throne for her grandson; “Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar.” In the time being, she is also a humanitarian and mystic. At the same time, she deals with diplomacy with foreigners such as Peter the Great of Russia and his wife Catherine and representatives from Western Europe such as personalities from England and France. At the same time, she is always thinking about business and establishing a healthy relationship with other countries in the years after her middle age. In all these years, Amina's character is portrayed as if the reader is facing a mature and intellectual thinker and politician.