Maryam Heidari; Zahra Aghababaii khozani
Abstract
After the decline of the ode, the tradition of lyrical storytelling that was a component of the first section of the ode was maintained in ghazal (sonnet), and helped to prepare the ...
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After the decline of the ode, the tradition of lyrical storytelling that was a component of the first section of the ode was maintained in ghazal (sonnet), and helped to prepare the grounds for a special kind of sonnet entitled "narrative ghazal". Some of these narrative ghazals have only a few elements of a story with a weak plot, a few actions, and no rise and fall, so they are mere sketches, but others contain more elements and, in extreme cases, they resemble stories with consequential actions. One of the main elements in the narrative sonnets is character. The main characters in the narrative ghazal are the beloved and the lover; they have unique as well as binary features. On the one hand, they are receptive to traditional patterns and appear as clichés; on the other hand, they are similar to twentieth century short stories. In the latter we encounter a certain type of character that can be compared with the character of "Byronic hero" in English literature or "Superfluous man" in Russian literature. The salient features of this character are passivity, inaction, and idealism. In this paper, after a general look at characters in the sonnets, the peculiarities of this particular type are discussed.
Keywords: “Superfluous man”, “character”, “Narrative lyric”, “Baryonic hero”.
