A Semiotic Study of the Cow in Three Domains:Mythological, Cultural, and Social- in three classic and Contemporary Works of Fiction (Kalila and Demna, Asrar-e Ganj Darreh Genie [The Secrets of the Treasure of the Valley of the Genie], and Azadaran-e Bayal [The Mourners of Bayal])

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research article

Authors

1 Ph.D student of Persian language and literature, Razi Univeesity, Kermanshah, Iran.

2 Associate professor of Persian language and literature, Razi Univeesity, Kermanshah, Iran.

Abstract

Language is not a one-sided raw material; rather, it is understood in a dialogical and social sense. Even when a person has internal monologues with himself, the characteristic of dialogue and two-way relationship is still evident. Since language is not based on essence, it acquires a completely social aspect and is placed in the cycle of repetition of previous and subsequent statements. This is why literature, as the most sublime artistic aspect of language, takes on such a path.Literary works also have a conversational aspect and an intertextual nature with the works before and after them. There is no literary work that is simply written by an original mind; rather, every literary work, in the process of being written, has consciously or unconsciously drunk from the water of previous literary writings and texts and then turned to manifestation and emergence. This article deals with a descriptive-analytical study of the conversational logic and intertextual nature of two contemporary works, Azadaran- e Bayal (The Story of the Cow) and Asrar-e Ganj Darreh Genei (The Secrets of the Treasure of the Valley of the Genie) with the classic literary text Kalila and Demna. The present study seeks to understand how two contemporary modern works, with different perspectives, are placed in the same context as a classic literary work. It is worth noting that the key intertextual term in this study is "cow" and the concept of its killing. After examining, we found that, based on the interactions that past texts have in future texts, the myth of the cow and its sacrifice has been used both in the classic text Kalila and Demna and in the two contemporary works "The Mourners of the Bayal" andThe Secrets of the treasure of the Valley of the Genie to express social, cultural concepts and power relations and various social bases. The common meaning in all three works is the death of the cow, the loss of something valuable, equivalent to identity and social base. The interpretability of the three works and the socio-political orientation are other common features of all three works.

Highlights

By examining intertextual instances, it became clear that three texts have used the myth of the cow and its sacrifice to express social concepts, power relations, and different social classes. The common meaning in all three texts is the death of the cow, either through being killed by the ruling power or through natural death, although that natural death (as we mentioned in the text) is also a kind of being killed by the socio-political structures of power. In all three texts, the 'cow' is that share of goodness that should not be lost, and losing it is linked to the decline of the individual and society.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Persian Language and Literature

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 14 July 2026

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  • Receive Date: 04 July 2025
  • Revise Date: 26 August 2025
  • Accept Date: 10 September 2025
  • Publish Date: 14 July 2026

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