Comparative Analysis of Actantial Model in Suhrawardi’s Persian Epistles from the Perspective of Greimas

Abstract

One of the major approaches to understanding the structure of narrative is its analysis based on Greimas’s system of binary oppositions. Greimas strived to achieve a comprehensive pattern in analysis of stories by dividing the actants into three binary oppositions and a tripartite division of events. This research aims to comparatively analyze the narrative structure in three Persian epistles of Suhrawardi by applying Greimas theoretical framework. The findings of the research point to the lack of formation of a complete narrative based on the actants in Greimas model. The reason is the dominance of knowledge-building, as the primary goal, over the narration form, as the secondary goal of Suhrawardi. As one of the consequences of this dominance, we can point to the spread of disjunctive progression across the epistles, which also arose from the dominance of discourse over structure. The research also reveals the formation of the same form of narration in terms of the system of actants and the type of layered narration. This style of processing the story indicates Suhrawardi’s understands of the concept of the nine planets and their connection with the soul. The similarity in the object/aim actant as a conceptual matter and the weakness in form indicators are other findings of this comparative study.

Keywords

• structural criticism
• greimas
• suhrawardi
• “ruzi ba jama'at sufiyaan” (a day with the community of sufis)
• “awaz-i par-i jebrail” (the chant of gabriel's wing)
• “risalat al-tayr” (epistle of the birds)