The Function of Gerrard Genette's Theory of Transtextuality in the Discovery and Analysis of the Influence of Shahnameh on Kush Nameh

Abstract

Transtexuality is a critical term in the contemporary literary theory, and it is based on the fact that a literary work is defined and understood only in relation to other literary works, since the creator of a literary work enters a world as soon as he decides to create a work of the medium of communication in his mind, and in this case, all the thoughts that the writer or poet takes with himself are involved in his creation of a new work. One of the major areas in the Iranian literature is the epic literature that can be viewed with the new transtextuality approach which may provide the new generation with novel ideas. Shahnameh Ferdowsi, as the greatest epic of Iran, has been a structural pattern and an appropriate content for its later works. In this regard, after Shahnameh, the epic works have progressed consciously or unconsciously through its narrative style and its structural pattern. Kush Nameh is a historical epic in which the wars of the Chinese and the Iranian armies were presented. This could be considered to be another narrative of the enemies of Iranians in the Shahnameh. Although the sources used by Kush Nameh differ from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and contain different content, but undoubtedly, its creator has been directly and indirectly influenced by Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. In this research, based on the descriptive-analytical method, this hypothesis that Kush Nameh and Shahnameh can be viewed through a transtextuality lens (i.e. Kush Nameh as the subtext, and Shahnameh as the super-text) was tested.

Keywords

• Shahnameh
• Kush Nameh
• Epic Literature
• Transtextuality
• Gerrard Genette