Content Analysis of "The Blue Tile" as the Collection of Stories by Mohammad Reza Safdari

The sociology of content is a branch of the sociology of literature that examines the relationship between the content of a literary work and society. This analysis not only helps in understanding the content itself but also provides insight into the society of the poet's era and its transformations. The aim of this research is to conduct a sociological analysis of the story collection "The Blue Tile", with an emphasis on the social content of the stories, based on the theory of Henry Zalamansky. This study employs a descriptive-analytical approach and is based on library research. The findings reveal that "The Blue Tile", in addition to its collectivist qualities, maintains a reciprocal relationship with society. The customs, rituals, and beliefs of the people of the South play a significant role in the collection. The belief in mythical creatures and the veneration of trees such as palms and hackberries, as well as animals like leopards, remains prevalent among the people of the South. "The Blue Tile" is one of the social novels in which the author's skillful portrayal of popular beliefs and storytelling style enhances its intimacy and credibility. The characters all belong to a social class introduced to the audience through dialogue. The story lacks a traditional hero, as the author seeks to reconnect with his identity through these characters, evoking a return to his childhood.
Introduction
This study offers a sociological analysis of Mohammad Reza Safdari’s short story collection “The Blue Tile,” applying Henry Zalamansky’s theory of the sociology of content. As one of the prominent authors of southern Iran, Safdari integrates local traditions, myths, and beliefs of the southern people into his literary works, providing a rich case for examining the dynamic interaction between society and literature. The research explores how “The Blue Tile” mirrors the social, cultural, and mythological realities of its time and environment, transforming folklore, and collective memory into symbolic literary expression. The sociology of content, a subfield of the sociology of literature, focuses on the reflection of social reality in the content of literary texts. By examining the thematic and ideological dimensions of Safdari’s narratives, this study identifies the sociocultural values, superstitions, and rituals embedded in the daily life of southern Iranian communities. The theoretical framework of Zalamansky views literature as a social document that responds to the “questions of its time.” In this sense, Safdari’s storytelling represents both a personal and collective attempt to reconstruct identity through memory, myth, and language.
Methodology
The current research adopts a descriptive–analytical and library-based approach. It examines all seven stories in “The Blue Tile” Peryoon, The Blue Marble, The Runaway Heart, The House of Reunion, Two Quails, The Lament, and The First Tree. Each story is analyzed in terms of its social functions, symbolic motifs, and reflection of local beliefs. The analysis identifies recurring mythological figures such as the demon harming mothers, fairy, sacred trees like palm, and animals such as leopards, which hold deep cultural significance. These motifs serve as metaphors for endurance, fertility, protection, and the continuity of indigenous culture.
Results and discussion
The findings indicate that “The Blue Tile” establishes a two-way relationship between art and society. On one hand, it reflects the collective consciousness of southern Iranian life. On the other hand, it reshapes that reality through mythic imagination and poetic narration. Safdari’s use of local dialects, colloquial speech, and ritual imagery reinforces the authenticity and intimacy of his stories. Each story in the collection portrays elements of southern folk culture and the struggle between modernity and tradition. The mythical creatures and sacred natural elements represent a worldview deeply intertwined with nature, spirituality, and superstition. For instance; belief in the demon reveals the persistence of pre-Islamic fears and protective rituals surrounding childbirth. The motif of the fairy symbolizes temptation and the duality of beauty and danger. The palm tree and lute tree embody sacredness and continuity, serving as metaphors for rootedness and resilience, and the leopard, associated with divine protection and vigilance, acts as both a symbol of fear and reverence. Through these symbols, Safdari reconstructs a mythic worldview that remains alive in southern oral traditions. His stories are neither purely realistic nor fully fantastic; rather, they occupy a liminal space between reality and imagination, embodying what can be termed “magical realism” rooted in Iranian folklore.
Socially, the characters belong to lower-class communities’ peasants, workers, and villagers whose lives are governed by ancestral beliefs and communal bonds. There are no “heroes” in the classical sense Instead, Safdari depicts ordinary people shaped by the forces of nature and history. The absence of a central hero reflects the collective spirit of the narrative and the author’s desire to recover a shared cultural identity. Dialogue plays a key role in shaping character identity and conveying regional authenticity. Moreover, the stories explore themes of alienation, identity loss, nostalgia, and existential uncertainty. The characters are often caught between remembering and forgetting, searching for meaning amid a collapsing social order. This ambiguity mirrors the author’s introspective return to childhood and his attempt to reconstruct memory as a site of belonging. In this sense, “The Blue Tile” can be read as both a sociological and psychological documenta map of collective consciousness filtered through personal memory.
According to Zalamansky’s model, every literary text responds to the ideological and emotional questions of its age. Safdari’s collection illustrates how southern Iranian literature negotiates between inherited beliefs and contemporary realities. The sociology of content allows us to trace these responses by analyzing the way themes such as superstition, sacredness, and communal life function as narrative devices reflecting societal transformation. The text demonstrates that folklore and myth are not static relics but active social forces that continue to shape local identity. In Safdari’s fiction, the line between myth and reality dissolves; myths are lived, not merely told. This dynamic interaction between the sacred and the mundane reaffirms the sociological premise that literature serves as both a mirror and a maker of society. “The Blue Tile” represents one of the most significant examples of southern Iranian narrative realism infused with magical and mythic elements. Through its detailed depiction of customs, dialects, and collective beliefs, the collection functions as a sociocultural archive that documents the transformation of rural society in the postcolonial era of Iran.
Conclusion
The study concludes that Safdari’s work reflects a deep awareness of the inseparable link between art, culture, and social consciousness. By embedding folklore and oral traditions within a modern narrative form, Safdari revitalizes indigenous identity and gives voice to marginalized communities. His narrative technique shifting between memory, dream, and dialogue captures the complexity of human experience in a world where myth and reality coexist. Ultimately, “The Blue Tile” can be viewed as a literary testimony to the endurance of cultural identity amid social change, offering a profound example of how local storytelling can articulate universal human questions.