نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسنده
استاد، گروه زبان و ادبیات فارسی، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه خوارزمی، تهران، ایران.
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسنده [English]
Motifs in classical Persian narratives serve multiple functions as structural, semantic, and aesthetic elements. They contribute to the cohesion of the story and the reinforcement of its narrative concepts. Among them, certain motifs act as indispensable plot-building components whose presence is essential to the story. Because of this, they cannot be omitted and are referred to as bound motifs. Despite their importance, bound motifs have received less scholarly attention in Persian storytelling. This raises an important question: if such motifs were removed, what narrative qualities, attractions, and capacities that captivate audiences would be lost? In addressing this question, the present study argues that the presence of motifs in stories compensates for narrative shortcomings such as lack of logic, causal gaps, and inconsistencies. They restore coherence and integrity to the narrative, give form to the story, and sometimes even create a sense of novelty and freshness within the tale. In this way, many bound motifs renew the narrative and enrich its storytelling functions. Accordingly, this paper aims to provide a theoretical framework that explores the function of bound motifs in Persian tales and demonstrates their role in shaping narrative structure and plot development. Therefore, studies of this kind will assist us in tracing the origins of shared tales in the literature of different nations and in uncovering the intellectual and cultural connections among peoples.
Introduction
Many critics have pointed to the formal shortcomings of Persian tales — for example a weak logic of causality, a tendency toward absolute and general statements, an emphasis on types rather than individuals, a detachment from reality, and similar defects — and have consequently placed such tales on a level lower than that of modern short stories. Although this judgment may appear partly correct at first glance, the matter has another aspect to be considered. Across the millennium-long history of Persian literature, these tales have preserved their position within the cultural and literary milieu, transmitted from one book to another, undergone formal and expressive modifications, met the needs of Iranian audiences, and retained in the collective memory of Iranians and even in the literatures of other peoples. Consequently, the fundamental question is; what is the secret of the endurance and persistence of these works within the history of Persian literature?
In other words, beyond their thematic and conceptual features and beyond storytellers’ use (or non-use) of meter and musicality, can longevity and influence be deduced as another features? From the standpoint of the present study, the key to this phenomenon must be sought in the presence of particular techniques and alternative devices within these tales. In other words, formal and technical features — such as the employment of free and flexible motifs and devices — not only strengthen the tales’ meanings and enhance their aesthetic appeal, but also contribute structurally to their formal and artistic coherence. Paradoxically, the existence of these seemingly minor elements has been instrumental in maintaining the continuous presence of myths, history, and Iranian culture within the narrative literature of Persian.
Methodology
Although formalist studies have arguably lost some of their earlier primacy, when one examines texts while taking into account the relationship between form and content, it can undoubtedly facilitate a better understanding of works and a more precise knowledge of them. In this paper, the investigation focuses on the presence of narrative schemata (story-patterns) in ancient Persian tales and on the functions these foundational motifs perform in shaping the body of the Persian tale. This inquiry is carried out by relying on the foregoing methodological premise and through a descriptive-analytic approach.
Contributions
The narrative schemata encountered in ancient Persian tales do not merely provide a background for textual cohesion; they enrich the content and grant the tales a degree of flexibility that has enabled their survival over time, thereby preserving a chain of cultural, mythic, and historical continuity. Certain types of these schemata (i.e., recurrent foundational motifs) constitute the structural backbone of the Persian tale and have thus become enduring phenomena, sometimes attaining a universal aspect that attests to cultural and literary interactions among peoples. These findings, alongside the theoretical development proposed here, can help recover the roots and interconnections of mythic and cultural elements across societies and offer new possibilities for classifying Persian tales and for developing a typology of their forms for future research.
کلیدواژهها [English]
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