Connection Between Epic and Play in Shahnameh: Comparative Study of Cognitive Drama Features in Two Stories of “Rostam and Sohrab” and “Rostam and Esfandiar”
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Journal of Sociological Research ISSN 1948-5468 2014, Vol. 5, No.1 Connection between epic and play in Shahnameh: Comparative Study of Cognitive Drama features in two Stories of “Rostam and Sohrab” and “Rostam and Esfandiar” io eodallo haolotamRaR ymoA,nm moA,hvRmAvmhoAthimamomv hcmoAv h,yaloeRvhnUothzARcmmaRdI Email: [email protected] no mmm hcoaor oAR ymoA,hmmeoAa o h,hmmeoAa o hcmoAv h,yaloeRvhnUothzARcmmaRdI RAhtmmaRoAhnoAa oamhoAthnRdmmod mmh.n.M Doi:10.5296/jsr.v5i1.6167 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/jsr.v5i1.6167 Abstract This article aims to reject the eastern theories that believe Iranians lack classical texts which are presentable in play and makes an attempt to modify this theory and show that Ferdowsi has been able to link epic and play in his stories by describing and matching based on capabilities and dramatic features of the stories of Rostam and Sohrab and Rostam and Esfandiar. The article provides the context of Iranian literature for the generation of play and drama, because existence of plan, description, characterization, causation, suspension, tragedy, conflict, climax, dialogue, time, and location have given play form and context to many tales of Shahnameh. Of course, Ferdowsi has not composed play but has composed epic. It can be argued that the stories in Shahnameh have the play structure in epic form. Keywords: Play, Epic, Shahnameh, Dramatic, Story Elements. Introduction Giving importance to common human affliction is the secret of maintaining oral and written literary works of any nation. The reason is that topics such as ill-temper, good-temper, hatred, love, chastity, honesty, hypocrisy, envy, anger and greed have been and will be the subjects of all generations and eras and no generation has been able to ignore, abandon or lose them entirely. On the other hand, the way of expressing and creative structure as well as the legendary, fictional and mythical structure of these stories and statements have not made a difference among them. So, dealing with common afflictions with common subjective language in various literary forms shows the unity and uniformity which is the secret of maintaining; both " Iliad and Odyssey of Homer” and Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. 7 www.macrothink.org/jsr Journal of Sociological Research ISSN 1948-5468 2014, Vol. 5, No.1 Epic and play connection plan in Shahnameh Shahnameh stories include human life and concerns of the era in the form of stories, myths, and legends. Deliberate attention to these stories, which has inspired thousands of qualified painters and booming tellers’ and narratives’ assemblies during consequent centuries, is a great testament that this work has the capabilities of being a play. In fact, Shahnameh is the main source of mythological and epic narratives of Iranians in Farsi. In Shahnameh, the oral traditions can be noted and preserved. A characteristic of Shahnameh is that various narrations’ features are combined together and the characters in which appear are unknown to the Avesta and Pahlavi sources (Amoozegar, 2004). Considering the signs and technical indicators in a literary work gives an especial literary and worthy-read reputation to it, so that it will become more attractive and will have long lasting impact. In play, this issue is highlighted and the reader should be made aware of past events and should be ended by solving a problem that the writer has presented through the story. In a more technical term, play is a conflict between two individuals or two different points. Play will never end unless one of the parties will win and we ,as the readers, realize what the results have brought about by one’s winning and the other’s defending. The context of designing play ideas is the same texts or mythic- analogic- dramatic epopee of the epics which exists in all countries, because it seems that ideas of narration, poetry and philosophical ideas are not something which exists in Greek civilization but not in Persian, Chinese, and ,Hindi civilizations or vice versa. However, the roots of the original works that we see today in the New World were also formed during the mythological periods with human beings and have been transmitted from generation to generation, but their fraction has made their analysis difficult. "The oldest known written epic and heroic poetry remained in the world are agonistic and epical poems; from Gilgamesh, an ancient Sumerian epic which is the world's most ancient poem and the inscription of the second millennium BC, and the time of the Assyrian king Ashur Banipal to Yasht’ha in are about the most precious part of the Avesta, the Zoroastrian divine letter and Homer's epics written about hundred years after Gilgamesh and the Ramayana’s epic, the ancient Hindu epic written more or less contemporarily with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey”(Kazazi,2007a, p. 3). All of these works are resulted from the pressures and hardships that have been imposed upon human for perpetuity and eternity. Perhaps, it can be said that human beings’ motivation to perpetuity towards myth, epic and even play was a conflict to deal with the obscurity, darkness, and death. "Epic is born of myth. True epic is born only in the heart of myth. So, epic is emerged in literature and culture of people who have a mythic and an ancient history" (Kazazi, 1993, p. 183). If epic deals with describing the heroic actions of the various aspects of people's lives in the form of iconic characters and legendary and semi- mythical heroes, play tries to connect human with nature and life and visualization of events through heroes by expressing typically opposite relationships such as happiness, and sadness, love and hate, birth and death, bondage and freedom, old and new, etc. Todays, the presence of these three in the life of human beings is different and is viewed differently from the past. The symptoms show that myths have been discredited but grown step by step beside human being and become newer and up-to-date day by day. Attendance of the three (myth, epic and play) in Shahnameh is so obvious that it can even lead us to a novel 8 www.macrothink.org/jsr Journal of Sociological Research ISSN 1948-5468 2014, Vol. 5, No.1 because Shahnameh stories are raw novels and somehow they are the modern sense of novel because there is no social perspective and in Persian prose while there is more eloquence. But, Ferdowsi versified this format and can be considered one of the highest dramatists. Although, he is not Greek but all Greek drama rules are considered. The drama created by Ferdowsi was able to bring in novel because novel dramatizes social events "(Dastqeib, 2007, p. 20) and it is clear that Shahnameh had stated social, historical, and mythic topics in language of Iranians’ social life until the time of Yazdegerd III. Shahnameh and dramatic elements Shahnameh has pictorial features and elements or in other words, full of drama and dramatic elements. This importance is apllicable both in terms of the academic definition of strory which is based on the existence of introduction, text and result and and also on human perspective which is based on approaches and issues and events that a person may face in his life. According to critics, a literary work with dramatic elements should include naturally dramatic features. For example, the story is intended to have a hero or antagonist, and the antagonist could be supra-natural forces. A play also has a specified historical date which and the time of Shahnameh is a mythological time. Also, having a specific geographic location, areas of emerging climax, conflict, suspension, disentangling, and theme are all features of a dramatic work and all these features are included in Shahnameh. Hanif (2005) states that “Shahnameh stories are separated and divided into the following components:h1) Statements 2) Deeds 3) Thoughts 4) Heroes 5) Times 6) Places 7) Arrays 8) Modes of transportation 9) Technique and the relationship of parts to each other 10) The logic governing relations and deeds of heroes” (p. 7). Each of these components are presented in turn in a variety of characters. Human speech can be dialogue, monologues, questions and answers, debate, grouping vote, prayer, self-praise, presentation, messaging, letter writing, lamentation, command and other social kinds. “The characters are classified through different perspectives. For example, it can be classified as natural, supra-natural or social classes; kings and princes, heroes, ministers, priests, ordinary people and, etc.” (Hanif, 2005 , p. 7). In any story, introducing character directly or through narrative and characterization is done in terms of character actions. In recognition of the types of characters in the history of dramatic literature, four classifications are known. Perhaps the most general possible classification of characters is in dramatic literature. This division is as follows: “1) a mythical character 2) legendary character 3) realistic character 4) modern character” (Zahedi, 1996, p. 46). It is clear that Shahnameh’s characters are placed in the first two. Therefore, in a more general classification, for mythical tales and legendary actors the word “hero” is used rather than character. Ferdowsi avoids of typing and deals with personification in some stories of Shahnameh by showing the heroes’ internal characteristics. “In term of accuracy in depicting personal characters particularly internal aspects, Shahnameh is above all fictional texts of traditional Persian verse and prose” (Hamidian, 1993, p. 15). As Shahnameh’s stories talk about heroes and adventurers and their destiny, it makes every story have the ability to become a dramatic one, because every hero in terms of character structure has capacity of dramatic character. 9 www.macrothink.org/jsr Journal of Sociological Research ISSN 1948-5468 2014, Vol.