Interpretation of Fire Symbolization through the Homeostasis Theory and Mythological Criticism (with Special Attention on Persian Mythology, Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, and Comparative View)

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 4, Volume 43, Issue 3, August 2010, Pages 95-118   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v43i3.9354

Authors

Mahdokht Poorkhaleghi Chatroodi; Farzad Ghaemi^*

Abstract

Mythological criticism is one of the main methods of contemporary literary criticism that has been based on findings of contemporary psychology and anthropology and history of civilisation, has been influenced particularly by the theories of Carl Gustav Jung, about the “collective unconscious” and “archetypes” that his psychology has been called analytic psychology, and his analytic method for mythology has been referred to as “Analytic Mythology.”
In this paper, we observe the symbolism of fire in myths, with this approach. The opposition and the projection of formation of homeostasis between the elements is a result of psychological projection of collective unconscious contents on environmental subjects, in order to overcome on the nature.
Meanwhile, there are the roles for the fire that it are observed in the world of mythology, including in the Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh and they are divided into two parts: First, in mythology, element of fire, as a higher element and the intermediate in between heaven and earth, is a symbol of the appearance of divine transfigure and eminence of a spiritual material in the world. Second, it is a symbol of heavenly power and object of the All-Powerful God’s torture (fire of hell), which this stage is a terrible and torrid shibboleth (the shibboleth of fire), that should be passed to a higher stage.

Key words: mythological criticism, archetype, collective unconscious, Jung, Shahnameh, fire.