Repetition Frequency in the Accounts of Zal’s Birth in the Shahnameh

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 5, Volume 46, Issue 3 - Serial Number 182, November 2013, Pages 139-166   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v46i3.25275

Author

Mostafa Sedighi^*

Abstract

Apart from its ancient history, narratology has opened new territory in text analysis with the theories of people like Genette, Todorov and Barthes in recent decades. Genette believes that the relations between text-time and story-time cause different situations one of which being repetition frequency. Repetition frequency is the frequency of referring to an event which has happened only once. After the narration of the same event by Ferdowsi, the story of the birth of Zal, his father’s rejection and his being raised by Simurgh, are heard nine more times from Sam, Zal and Esfandiyar albeit in different forms and with different intentions. This subject has been analyzed based on narration-time. To further clarify the point, subjects such as narrative levels and reliability or unreliability of narrator have been studied. Ferdowsi as a historical narrator interferes with his own retrospective narration in different ways. Then certain characters in the story repeat the same account with “purposeful” additions and removals. Apart from the accounts given by Sam and Zal, that of Esfandiyar’s is fundamentally different from the other two.

Keywords

Shahnameh; Zal; Genette; Frequency; narrative levels; reliable and unreliable narrator; Esfandiyar