The Analysis of the Novel of Fereydoon Had Three Sons, Based on Bakhtin's Dialogism

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 3, Volume 49, Issue 2 - Serial Number 193, September 2016, Pages 81-105   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v49i2.46140

Authors

Fatemeh Zamani^* ; Abdollah Hassanzadeh Mirali; Hassan Akbari bairagh

Semnan University

Abstract

. Introduction
Bakhtin has specialized the polyphony to the type of novel, especially postmodern novels. He generally has divided the fiction into the three periods: the classical, new (modern), and post-modern period (postmodern). The integrity protection along with the cause and effect relationship in the text are the first period features. The modern era is known for the emergence of complexity and the words disorderliness, and the postmodern period, considering the beginning of the novel pays attention to the absurdity.
The stream of consciousness, criticizing the past and returning to it, the presence of historical personage, intertextuality, the reader engagement with the text, the emphasis on the infinite meaning and uncertainty are the post-modern novel’s features. The technique of transition and having flashbacks to the past centuries and the old texts by disrupting the dimension of the time, is a common and specific feature of the post-modern stories which is characterized as the era of transition from the modernity. Making symmetrical characters of the old men in modern fiction stories or relating the same actions and functions, will revive the reminiscent of those characters and their great deeds. This artistic method can be considered as an expanded but a renovated and a progressive form of allusion (Razabigy & others, 2013, p. 139). Hence, the postmodern works are suitable for the intertextual analysis and reading. Abbas Maroofi in the collection of his works, such as Farhad’s Body, The Dead’s Symphony, The Years of Riot, Fereydoon Had Three Sons, etc., had a tendency towards principles of postmodernism particularly postmodern intertextuality.
2. Methodology
This study has analyzed the novel of Fereydoun Had Three Sons in relation to the story of King Fereydoon in Shahnameh based on Dialogism theory.
Bakhtin has considered dialogism as the speech foundation. Dialogism is based on an intertextual dimension. By definition of the conversation, Mikhail Bakhtin continually links the text to the context, to the author, and also to the authors who have lived earlier. So, each text consciously or unconsciously converses to the earlier texts with which it has some similarities and even with the forthcoming texts which can be predicted based on the present text. He believes that the novel is a mixture of all the literary types: from the lyric poem to the epic, and didactic literature, especially the folklore which is written in prose that is the most various literary type. We, alternatively, find different parts in the novel like the historical part, the recitative, and also the conversational parts. These parts are interwoven with each other and they are also written in the most innovative and the most artificial way as it is possible.
Bakhtin in different ways, has classified the represented discourse (means the author’s / the narrator’s perception of the reality) that Tzvetan Todorov has given its simplified diagram to this form:
1- Monologue (direct quote)
2- Polyphony: 1. Passive: a) convergent (stylistic), b) divergent (parody). 2. Activate (public or private debate).
By the single phonetic (monologue) Bakhtin means that the narrator has the last word in the novel to make the final decision and his sound or his phonetic is the overall sound, but in the polyphonic novel, the narrator’s sound is alongside the other’s sounds. In this case, when there is another sound beside the author’s sound, the author doesn’t intend to recreate and to give a new interpretation of another speech as there is another speech parallel to the author’s speech. Different sounds display different ideological deployments as they equally and without the author’s judgment or limitations can be involved in the conversation. In these kinds of novels, the characters will not be subdued by the author and the author’s sound is alongside their sound or is parallel to them. A polyphony speech is the speech belonged to a single narrator because of its syntactic features, but practically includes two interwoven speeches, two methods of talking, two styles, two languages, and also two semantic horizons. In this level, the author has applied the other’s sound while giving a new meaning to the text. Bakhtine considers stylistic, parody, Manipe libel, carnival, and internal controversies as the examples of such a speech.
3. Results and Discussion
The result of this analysis shows that in this novel, by using some elements of postmodernism, the author has tended to deconstruct and to parodize the mythical narrative of Fereydoon in Shahnameh. Through semantic implications and new values, carnivalism as well as creating polyphony in the speech of Shahnameh, the author has depicted an eternal man struggling to seize power while criticizing Iran's male dominance and patriarchal society.
Novel of Fereydoon Had Three Sons is one of the postmodern texts which raises doubts about the reality, relativism, uncertainties, and other intellectual and political issues by creating a conversational relationship with the story of Fereydoon and his sons in Shahnameh.
In order to criticize the domineering discourse and the single voice of the society which does not allow the other systems of thought to act, Maroofi uses the other (Shahnameh) speech in three ways and makes a polyphonic discourse. Stylistically, he could mention the story of Fereydoon as a repeatable cycle of the history. Maroofi has a trans-historical attitude to the stories of Jamshid, Zahhäk, and Fereydoun. He considers the mythical narratives as the samples of the facts which have mingled with the man’s nature. Being repeatable is in the nature of the myth, so, it is repeatable in the modern age too.
Also, the paradoxical dialogue of the author with the story of Feriydun in Shahnameh causes the two semantic layers to be inferred from this story: infanticide and patriarchy. Maroofi emphasizes on the role of Feriydoun Amani as a father in the son's fate and creates a connection between this character and the mythical character of Fereydoon which shows that the most neglected feature of Fereydoon in Shahnamehhas is his role in the abominable tradition of the infanticide. The mythical foundations of this tradition can be seen in the myths of the other nations, especially in the character of Zeus. The monophonic discourse in the patriarchal society has no result but killing the sons like Iraj by their fathers. The author’s emphasis on the mother’s role who can do nothing to save his son from the death’s claws, is another semantic layer or another paradoxical reading inferred from the novel's conversational relationship with Shahnameh. Through this semantic layer, Maroofi has criticized the male-dominated society which is indicative of another semantic layer of the story of Fereydoun in Shanameh as it is the transition of the Iranian society from the matriarchy to the patriarchy. This novel has depicted the time when the domination of the great goddess on the men has been forgotten. In addition, raising doubt about the reality, relativism, and uncertainty in this novel has ridiculed the monologue narrative of Shahnameh. Ranting about Ferdowsi and the narratives of Shahnameh, presenting ridiculous scenes of Zahhak and his court grandees as well as Kaveh’s insurrection, the deconstruction of the glory and the imposition of the mythical figure of Fereydoun, and Manouchehr’s strange creation of being Woolly, all are the examples of the author's efforts to ridicule the power of the mythical narratives of Shahnameh. By Ranting about the story of Fereydoon in Shahnameh and Ferdowsi’s character, Maroofi could present a new interpretation of Shahnameh. So, he has made it possible to hear the other sounds which were not being heard because of the mythical sanctity of Shahnameh.

Keywords

Dialogism; Bakhtin; Shahnameh; Fereydoon had three sons; Abbas Maroofi

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