Investigating the Didactic Discourse in Houshang Moradi Kermani’s Story “The Smile of Pomegranate", based on Althusser's Theory of Ideology

Abstract

Constructivist sociology is one of the contemporary literary criticism approaches that focus on the reflection of the social structures in the literary works. According to constructivist Louis Althusser, the process of maintaining power in pre-modern era was applied by suppressive apparatuses; and in the modern era it is fulfilled through ideological apparatus as education (especially at schools). This study examines the performance of ideological apparatus of school in “The Smile of Pomegranate", a story by Houshang Moradi Kermani which portrays the two discourses of traditional and modern educational system. Belief in the desirability of violent attitude as an efficient means of education appears as an ideology in the traditional discourse of education in this story, and the suppressive method transforms into a modern ideological method in its modern layers. By examining the type and the function of elements related to these traditional and modern discourses, in the Althusserian view, the process is identified as the changing process of maintaining power in pre-modern and modern periods.

Keywords

• constructivist sociology
• althusser
• ideology
• houshang moradi kermani
• the smile of pomegranate