Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی
Authors
1 PhD student of Persian language and literature, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2 shahid Beheshti university faculty member,Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The concept of representation and the ability of literary texts in representing historical events have been long focused in literary studies. The process of shaping narration in historical events should be considered in studying the historical anecdotes, the ones with the focus on historical characters or events that have presented the history in a different style by applying magical, miraculous or symbolic elements in representing historical happenings. Therefore presenting a new perspective to anecdotes of gnostic texts in order to clarify the process of inverting these events into story and making these characters literal will find special importance. The narration of Hussein Ebne Mansour Hallaj can be considered as a successful model of literary representation of one historical event and revival of one historical character in a gnostic text in which representing Attar’s destiny has been converted in to a single artistic effect apart from its historical aspect. In this text, following a reference to the place of representation concept in literary studies and analyzing the artistic representation of historical events, sorting and analysis of these anecdotes in Attar’s Tazkirat al- Awliya has been done through using a definition for historical narration. The result of this text reveals that Attar has tried to make clarifications about his targeted gnostic discourse by using historical events and converting them into series of literary anecdotes and narrations.
Highlights
A Literary Representation of Historical Events in Tazkirat al- Awliya based on the Narration of Mansour Hallaj
Marziyeh Golfeshani (Corresponding Author)
PhD Student of Persian Language and Literature, Shahid Beheshti University.
Ghodratollah Taheri
Associate Professor, Persian Language and Literature Department, Shahid Beheshti University
Abstract
The concept of representation and the ability of literary texts in representing historical events have been long focused on in literary studies. The process of shaping narration in historical events should be considered in studying the historical anecdotes, the ones with the focus on historical characters or events that have presented the history in a different style by applying magical, miraculous or symbolic elements in representing historical happenings. Therefore presenting a new perspective to anecdotes of gnostic texts in order to clarify the process of inverting these events into story and making these characters literal will find special importance. The narration of Hussein Ebne Mansour Hallaj can be considered as a successful model of literary representation of one historical event and revival of one historical character in a gnostic text in which representing Attar’s destiny has been converted into a single artistic effect apart from its historical aspect. In this text, following a reference to the place of representation concept in literary studies and analyzing the artistic representation of historical events, sorting and analysis of these anecdotes in Attar’s Tazkirat al- Awliya has been done through using a definition for historical narration. The result of this text reveals that Attar has tried to make clarifications about his targeted gnostic discourse by using historical events and converting them into series of literary anecdotes and narrations.
Key Words
Representation, Historical Event, Historical Anecdotes, Tazkirat al- Awliya
Introduction
Historical reality inspires the creation of literary texts. Plato and Aristotle considered Art as imitating the reality, but with a difference. Plato reviewed the imitating aspect of Art from ethical perspective; however, Aristotle had an aesthetic outlook toward it.What has been mentioned by Aristotle as Mimesis has a wider meaning of assimilation and imitation and therefore representation can be a more suitable equivalent term for it .In representation, the transformation and recreation of reality occurs. Although some aspects of it may be similar to the existing reality, real interpretations are only used to show literary work more documented. The author creates a new reality through selecting the existing reality and modifying it by using imagination elements.
Literary representation of historical events can be considered as the step after the work of the historian who is dealing with documentation and discovery of historical regulations and his work is registering the reality, even by imagining that his work is affected by his interpretation and judgement. The anecdotes of old texts are possible to be analyzed from this point of view. For example, in Tazkirat al- Awliya, Attar has not narrated the historical events according to their historical reality; therefore there are some differences between the mentioned historical anecdotes in this book and the given historical events.
Objectives and Methods
The main objective of the current study is to analyze Attar’s approach in facing with historical events and their literary representation in Tazkirat al- Awliya. This study follows a descriptive/analytic method, so after referring to the history of Representation from ancient Greece until now, a definition was given with regard to this concept. Then the meaning of artistic representation of historical events was described and based on that a historical anecdote was presented and in the end, based on the given theoretical elements in their first part of this article, an analysis on the basis of Hussein Ebne Mansour Hallaj, as a successful model for the literary representation of one historical event, was presented.
Conclusion
The results of the study indicate that the mentioned historical event has been influenced and changed by the imaginative mind of narrators through making symbols and icons, so the more mysterious the historical event or character was, the more symbolization has been made for. For example, in our gnostic literature and in Attar’s book,Tazkirat al- Awliya, the focus of the reference to the historical event is not the murder of Hallaj. In gnostic and mendicant discourse, Hallaj has changed to a literary, gnostic and historical case and representation of Attar from his fate is one artistic effect apart from a historical event; furthermore dealing with this historical event, Attar did not want to narrate the murder of Hallaj,but he tried to create his insight system. Therefore the narration of Hallaj was an excuse for making such deductive system with a trace of a gnostic hero. Hence, it can be concluded that history has helped gnostic movements to be prosperous, so one historical event has been converted into a series of literary narrations and anecdotes which have brought about some schools of thought.
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