Studying the Title, Beginning and Ending in the Short Stories of Mahmoud Taymour and Jamalzadeh

The title serves as the initial point of connection between the author and the reader, facilitating communication through the story. Following the title, the beginning and the ending play crucial roles in shaping the narrative. The significance of the three elements—title, beginning, and ending—is particularly pronounced in modern short story writing, given the genre's brevity and conciseness. This study primarily aims to analyze the titles, openings, and conclusions of short stories by Mahmoud Taymour, a contemporary Egyptian storyteller, and Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, a contemporary Iranian storyteller. This focus stems from the near-simultaneous introduction of new Western story genres into the literary societies of Egypt and Iran, which resulted in relatively similar narrative developments in both countries. The findings of this research, conducted using a descriptive-analytical method and a comparative approach, reveal that the similarities in the titles, openings, and endings of the short stories by these two authors are rooted in their central and dominant theme. Both Taymour and Jamalzadeh, like the intellectuals of their era, emphasize the necessity of creating a bridge between modern European civilization and ancient traditional Asian society. The differences between these two authors also arise from their ideological tendencies, critical or literary approaches, and the political and social conditions prevailing in their societies.
Introduction:
A short story is a window that briefly opens onto the characters, their actions, and their lives. Various technical, structural, social, political, and cultural factors contributed to the invention of the short story technique in contemporary Arabic and Persian literature. In these types of stories, the title, beginning, and ending are very important because the writer has less time to capture the audience's attention. Iran and Egypt, with their rich cultural and historical differences, possess some of the oldest examples of storytelling in their vast collections of fictional literature. Both regions were introduced almost simultaneously to new forms of Western storytelling through translated fiction. For this reason, this study examines and compares the titles, beginnings, and endings of short stories by Mahmoud Taymour, a contemporary Egyptian storyteller, and Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, a contemporary Iranian storyteller.
The reason for choosing these two authors is that Mahmoud Taymour is regarded as the pioneer of the short story in Arab literature, while Jamalzadeh is recognized as the founder of the realism style in Persian literature. This research aims to address the following questions:
What are the titles, openings, and conclusions of the short stories by Mahmoud Taymour and Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh?
What are the similarities and differences in the titles, openings, and conclusions of the short stories by these two authors?
Methodology:
This research was conducted in a descriptive-analytical manner with a comparative approach. Data were collected using library methods and a questionnaire tool.
Results and Discussion:
Mahmoud Taymour has focused on three types of constructions in story titles: one-word titles, phrases, and sentences. In contrast, Jamalzadeh's stories do not include any one-word titles. Sentence-like titles in both authors' works are short and contain the elements of a complete sentence. Additionally, the absence of demonstrative elements in the story titles of both authors reflects their authorial focus and disregard for the audience.
The formal titles in the short stories of both authors indicate the type of work. However, Jamalzadeh's story titles often mislead readers regarding the time period in which the story was written and whether it belongs to the old or new tradition of storytelling. Additionally, these titles frequently fail to clearly specify the type of short story. The title "One Was, One Was Not" by Jamalzadeh reflects a reminder of tradition, whereas the titles of Taymour's short stories align with the themes of modern short fiction.
- In the titles of the collection "One Was and One Was Not" by Jamalzadeh, the tone is happy and sad in equal measure; While in the titles of the stories of the first collection of Al-Wathba, there is no color of joy and sometimes even the color and smell of death.
- In the short stories of Mahmoud Taymour and Jamalzadeh, the title is considered from the author's perspective.
Mahmoud Taymour's ideological orientations and his critical or literary approaches can be seen in the title, however, the titles of the story collection “One Was and One Was Not are devoid of ideological and religious signs. In fact, in the titles of Mahmoud Taymour's short stories, religion, society, and politics are the dominant elements; But the dominant element in the titles of Jamalzadeh's stories is the story and its elements and attention to colloquial and oral language. - Mahmoud Taymour's stories begin mostly with a description (of the external or internal characteristics of the main character or place; while Jamalzadeh begins his stories with a nostalgic mood. Jamalzadeh's stories have a closed ending, while Taymour has taken a step forward in story writing by creating stories with an open ending. The unexpected ending of some of Taymour's stories is unlike Jamalzadeh's story, which has a calm and story-like ending. Perhaps the only similarity that can be observed between the endings of Jamalzadeh's and Taymour's stories is the death that involves the main characters of the story.
Conclusion:
In this study, the title, beginning and ending in the short stories of Mahmoud Taymour and Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh were examined and analyzed under these headings.
Title in the short stories of Mahmoud Taymour and Jamalzadeh
Titles from the perspective of form
Title construction
Formal titles
Titles from the perspective of content
The contrast between tradition and modernity
Joyfulness and sadness
Title, author and text
Beginning in the short stories of the two authors
Ending in the short stories of the two authors
The similarity between these two authors is that the main and dominant idea of ​​​​the thoughts of Taymour and Jamalzadeh, like the intellectuals of their time, was to build a bridge in various fields between modern European civilization and ancient traditional Asian society, and the differences between these two authors are due to their ideological orientations, critical or literary approaches, and the political and social conditions prevailing in their society.