Literary Arts (Jun 2016)
The study aims at the structural analysis of Nezami's tale of "the Evil and the Good" in terms of Greimas's structural semantics
Abstract
Abstract The present research focuses on the investigation of Nezami's tale of "the Evil and the Good" in terms of Greimas's structural semantics. The study aims at the structural analysis of the tale above through the identification of binary oppositions, sequences, the contractual, performative, and disjunctive ones and a good grasp of the structure of Haft Peikar to generalize the research findings to other verse narratives in Persian classic literature. The reason for the selection of Nezami lies in his artifice in narrative production, the narrativity of Haft Peikar and the popularity of the tale of "The Evil and the Good". The research method is descriptive-analytic and the findings are analyzed through content analysis along with Gremasian semantic analysis. The findings reveal that hero (subject) and goal (object) and the central actors in the narrative and the subject (the good) as the base part plays an active role in then narrative with respect to the adaptability of Gremasian approach to the "the Evil and the Good" and conducting more researches, one can confide in Greimas's structural analysis of the other verse narratives. Keywords: structuralism Greimasactantial pattern, Haft Peikar, "the Evil and the Good" Professor of Persian language and literature, kurdistan university * MA. student of Persian language and literature, kurdistan University** The present research investigates the tale of "Evil and Good" in Nezami's Haft Peikar in terms of Greimasian semantic structuralism and tries through binary oppositions to verify the degree of applicability of Greimas' actantial modelto the Persian versified narratives and generalization of the results to other verse narratives to achieve a better understanding of the structure of these narratives. Greimas was able to drive semantic square from binary oppositions. He discovered, through these oppositions, a new type of dialectic whereby each concepts generates another concept, and grammatical stages shift away from logical grammar to narrative grammar (Harland… ). Greimas sought a deep structure through developing a semantic square. Haft Peikar or Bahramname narrates the commence of the kingdom of Bahram the Fifth (420-439) and Nezami retells it in 584. Haft Gonbad is one of the important sections of Haft Peikar which concerns the tale of seven princes in seven regions which are daily visited separately by Bahram shah wearing a dress which matched the color of the Gonbad and met the region's princess. The Thursday's story happens in a sandal gonbad which is about evil and good that travel on a path where they met and opposed each other due to the thirst and unbearable heat. The evil is defeated, gives no water to his fellow-traveler, and makes the good blind in return for a sip of water, leaves him alone and injures on the desert. Meanwhile a Kurdish girl who comes to fetch water hears the moans of the Good and with the aid of his father treats him who, in the end, marries the girl in return for their goodwill and favor. At the end of the tale, superiority of the Good over the Evil is depicted. Attention to Greimas' Actantial model, semantic square and binary oppositions as a new theory of structural analysis would demonstrate the perfect adaptation of the Nezami's Evil and Good tale with the levels of deep and surface structures. Since the so-called model provides the possibility of analysis of all the components of the text, one can discuss the peripheral cycles of actors. The tale of Evil and Good is apparently one tale, but its analysis via Greimas' model could tell its subplot from main plot. This tale consists of two tales which are connected through chains and hero (subject) and goal (object) as central actors are of more significance. Subject (good) as the basic pole plays an important role in plot and is a the central actor in both tales. The good in the first tale ( qualifyingtest) is a responsibility of both evil and good and in the second tale (treatment) is a responsibility of Good which moves the tale towards more dynamism along with marriage as the resolution
