Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی
Authors
1 Persian language and Literature Group , Faculty of Literature and Humanities,University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.
2 Persian language and Literature Group, Faculty of Literature and Humanities , University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
3 Ph.D condition, Departemat of Persian language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities,University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.
Abstract
A branch of disability studies, rather than the biological aspect of the body, illness and disability, is concerned with disability representations, the politics of care and body care, symptomatic reading (understanding, interpretation and evaluation) and its medical, moral, social and cultural models. In ableism discourse, disability is generally characterized by negative stereotypes. Most of the proverbs, ironies, folklore, stories contain negative schemas and metaphors about disability. In ableism discursive systems, disability is influenced by moral and religious (punishment, sin), political, cultural and ideological concepts and is associated with concepts such as shame, othering, abjection and exclusion, evil, ugliness and sin. In the stories of One Thousand and One Nights, the identity of disabled people is generally associated with concepts such as evilness, fear, shame, pity, humiliation, mockery and inauspiciousness, touching the taboos, spells, and magic. In all over the book, we can recognize marked and grotesque bodies. In most stories, positive characters and heroes are beautiful and physically healthy, while negative characters, anti-heroes, afārīt, and genies are described as having physical defects. The research method of this article is discourse analysis, although theories related to the body, illness and disability have also been used due to the text and the problem.
Highlights
Extented Abstract
Introduction
The collection “One Thousand and One Nights” is an encyclopedic novel based on the lived experiences of the orient people and their perspective on the life and being. The initial core of this work is Indo-Iranian, but it is also mixed with Arabic, Egyptian, Greek and Turkish cultural elements. In the course of the centuries, this collection has been intertwined with people’s lives in different cultural contexts, leading to historical, cultural and storytelling links, and it has acquired knowledge of it and has reached perfection in today’s form. In this manner, “One Thousand and One Nights” is a treasure into which the cultural values and anti-values of various nations have found their way, and because of the valuable information it provides in this field, it has prepared the ground for conducting many researches in various cultural, social and anthropological fields.
Literature Review and Methodology
One of the issues different societies are facing, as a result of which it appears in the literature, is disability as a phenomenon. In the concept of disability, various topics and features such as patient, stupid, ugly, old person, handicapped and insane are collected. All of these serve to devalue bodies not conforming to social [conventional] norms. In the ableism discourse, disability is generally characterized by negative stereotypes that have led to a destroyed social identity development for the disabled, which is referred to as stigma in sociology. Disability is influenced by moral and religious, political, cultural and ideological models and is associated with concepts such as minoritization, rejection, abjection, evilness, ugliness and sin. Stereotyped attitudes towards the disabled have been repeated and institutionalized in language, art, literature and movies throughout history, and have caused them to experience the feelings such as stigma, rejection, and inferiority complex. An array of literary texts, proverbs, ironies, folklore and tales contains negative metaphors, stereotypes and schemes about disability.
There is a small number of works of research conducted on disability. In Iran, an insignificant number of studies have been done on sociology, anthropology, cinema, and literature. Researches that have been conducted on disability as a phenomenon in literary works are divided into two parts: 1) Researches done in the field of official literature. This group itself is classified into two parts: A) the studies that have considered it sufficient to write a problem statement and have studied disability in Persian literature by taking a descriptive view without taking a critical view or paying attention to a specific theory. B) the second one, however, has dealt with disability in literature by gaining an analytical insight and adopting a critical approach. 2) In the interim, some researches have been conducted in the field of child’s and adolescent’s literature that have dealt with disability.
Among the researches carried out in the field of literature, the topic of “Representation of Illness and Disability in One Thousand and One Nights” has not been investigated yet. In this research, disability is a broad term that includes various concepts such as “disease, deformity, insanity, maim and ugliness”. Disease generally means physical disorder and of course mental illnesses with outward appearances. The approach of discourse analysis has been adopted as a research technique in this article, although the theories regarding body, illness and disability have also been utilized in accordance with the text and its problem.
Discussion
The traces of stereotyped attitudes can be also evident in the way disability is represented in the tales of One Thousand and One Nights. The creators and narrators of these folktales have represented disability under the influence of the powerful discourses of healthism. They have utilized disability as a narrative prosthesis in order to advance their goals in the narrative. The narrators have applied disability as a metaphor or code to convey a message. In the folktales of One Thousand and One Nights, disabled people are stigmatized and considered to be a defective human being. In some of the stories, the occurrence of physical deformities causes a sneering look at the disabled. In many of the folktales, the narrators, relying on the influence of the healthism discourse, benefit from disability as a sign and a code to instill the concept of evilness. In others, negative characters are described with their physical deformities, and positive ones and protagonists, in contrast, are described with no flaws. In addition, round and round in this collection, evil and demonic creatures such as “dives”, “giants” and “ifrits” are depicted using the signs of disability.
In this book, the disabled are sometimes considered sinister and rejected as a threat factor, and they are occasionally deemed as sinners who are punished for their bad deeds due to their disability. In a number of the stories, disability is regarded as a sign of inaptitude and incompetence, and in others, it is considered as a sign of madness, stupidity, and foolishness. Furthermore, a disdainful look prevails in the majority of the tales, and people with physical fitness and health are categorized into the upper class while the disabled into the lower class. Disabled characters are usually not taken seriously, and they are rejected and passive, and are humiliated. Disability is sometimes created as a result of being possessed by a demon or meeting an evil being or as a consequence of touching a taboo or magic, and occasionally due to a spell.
Conclusion
The representation of disability and illness in One Thousand and One Nights is influenced by the dominance of the healthism (health-oriented) discourse and it is a reflection of the institutionalized cultural stereotypes. Disability has played a symbolic and metaphorical role in this collection, and the narrators have taken advantage of it as a narrative prosthesis to advance their goals in the narrative and convey meaning to the audience. Therefore, every type of visible defect in this work can be considered as an identity-formation factor and a symbol of evilness and badness. In most of the tales of the collection, positive characters and heroes meet beauty standards and enjoy physical fitness, while negative characters, anti-heroes and evil creatures such as dives and giants are described with their physical defects and deformities. In addition, in a large number of them, the upper class is described with no defects while the disabled are categorized into the lower class (including maids, slaves, clowns, etc.). As a whole, disability in this collection is associated with the stereotyped concepts, including fear, evilness, foolishness, magic, pity, humiliation and ridicule.
By investigating the folktales of One Thousand and One Nights, we come to the conclusion that the samples presented in the book are based on physical disabilities and diseases. In this regard, the defects and deformities in the head and face, especially in the eyes, are the most frequent. Therefore, diseases that do not harm or disfigure the face, no matter how deadly they are, never cause deep fear, but on the contrary, the more obvious the disabilities, the more unpleasant emotions are induced, which carry many negative emotions and are interpreted with negative stereotypes
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