The “conflict between good and evil” a motif in Shahnameh and the narrative archetype

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 7, Volume 40, Issue 1 - Serial Number 156, March 2007, Pages 101-116   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v40i3.13163

Abstract

In the classification and structural analysis of Shahnameh, the authors of the article consider the conflict between good and evil (from now on C.G.E.) as the main motif of this great epic. This motif has spread all over the epic. The number of the stories being influenced by the myth of C.G.E. is at least twice as many as every other motif in the epic. Considering the antiquity of the myth and motif of C.G.E. in the man’s culture and the definition of structuralists -under the influence of this myth- for the narration, the authors introduce the C.G.E. as the narrative archetype; because this myth is the deep structure of narrative pattern in collective unconscious of mankind.

Keywords: Shahnameh, Structuralism, myth, conflict between good and evil, narrative archetype.