Literary Arts (Dec 2014)
Simile: the most salient stylistic feature in Kelile and Demne
Abstract
Abstract Kelile and Demne is one of the most salient samples of Persian technical prose rhetorical and semantic figures and figures of speech namely simile, metaphor, metonymy and irony are among the stylistic features of this book. Among these, simile, as the most influential imagination tool, play a dominant role in the illustrations of the book. In this article, simile has been analyzed and investigated in all its variations in Kelile and Demne. In this book, simile appears from its most laconic form (eloquent simile) to its most extensive form. But the major feature of theirs is their outspokenness, explicitness and sometimes their novelty. Among the likening components, the range of image vocabulary is one of the likening features in this book. Also the point of similarity has been usually abstracted from man's states, shape, place, space, volume and generally affairs concerning visual and tactile senses. So, its perception is not too much difficult. The variety and extension of likening vehicles in this work are worth of contemplating. In analysis of simile on the credit of both parties, we can conclude that ratio-emotional similes are of the most frequent kinds of simile. And Nasrollah Monshi has extended the field of emotional similes and has manipulated the relations between objects in a novel way. Allegoric simile has been used abundantly in Kelile and Demne. It justifies the didactic function of this text. Allegory approaches its main role in this book. i.e. arguing and convincing. The contents of allegories in this book are moral and political and in terms of from, they are anecdotes of animals and human beings. The types of similes on the credit of form - namely equalization similes implied comparative similes and subtrahend similes - have been also used. Among the salient features of this book, several images together or in interference with each other have been used in one word or sentence. Sometimes similes accompany other rhetorical factors e.g. Metaphor, irony, symmetry, etc. And this reinforces the imaginative aspect of speech and sometimes leads to the complexity of its contents. In general, we can say that simile in Kelile and Demne is one of the main factors of imagination and the center of gravity of illustration. The main goal of the writer of this book is practicing the social and moral meanings and concepts. Therefore, although the writing style of this book justifies the attention paid to the aesthetical aspects of simile, the main goals with using them are illumination and explanation. For this reason, in this book, similes, despite their multiplicity, their vanity, their blend with the verbal and semantic orders and their pictorial intricacy are devoid of any kind of abstruseness and complexity
