Episodic Stories in Persian Epic Narratives and Their Connection with Fairy Tales (Case Study: Shahnameh and Bahmannameh)

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan

10.22099/jba.2021.39582.3960

Abstract

The unity and coherence in narrative and fiction are some of the characteristics that have long been considered as salient elements of epic narratives. Having been more recent than Indian and Greek epics in time, Persian epics, on occasion, feature an episodic structure. Throughout the series of stories, there are episodes without a coherent connection with the stories before and after them, thus being a misfit to the macro-structure of the epic work. Such episodes are, indeed, sub-narratives inserted into the linear development of the epic narrative. Since such a characteristic as episodic structure is recurrent in Persian epic narratives, it is necessary to scrutinize the narrative and mythological patterns before writing in this field. Accordingly, eleven episodic stories have been gleaned through a thorough examination of the two works of Shahnameh and Bahmannameh. After collecting the narrative minima of the stories, elucidating their narrative structure, analyzing their mythological deep-structure, and investigating how they relate to the macro-structure of the work throughout the development of epic narrative, we will expound the narrative patterns and myths fashioning the episodic stories in epic works. The results of the present study indicate the significant differences between episodic stories and the macro-structure of epic narratives in the case of origins, narrative and mythological structures, and their connection with fairy tales.

Keywords

Journal of Poetry Studies (boostan Adab)

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 September 2021

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics