Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Mohammad Reza Salehi Mazandarani ¹
• zahra nasirishiraz ²
• Ghodrat Ghasemipour ³
• Nasim Maraghi ³

¹ Department of Persian Literature/ Faculty of Persian Literature & Foreign Languages / Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz/ iran

² shahid chamran university of Ahvaz/Iran

³ Department of Persian Literature/ Faculty of Persian Literature & Foreign Languages / Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz/ ahvaz/ iran

Abstract

The present study focuses on the story of “Rostam and Sohrab” in Shahnameh and examines the modes of narrator presence and its impact on the structure of narration and the representation of characters. The aim is to identify the narrator’s position across different narrative levels and to understand how it influences point of view and the relationship between the narrator’s voice and the voices within the text. The theoretical framework of the research is based on the narratological concepts of Gérard Genette and Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, and examples of narration are analyzed at both the extra-diegetic and intra-diegetic levels.
The analyses show that in most parts of the story, the narrator functions as an omniscient voice outside the narrative world, possessing full knowledge of time, place, and the characters’ minds. However, in some scenes, narration is handed over to the characters, which results in a temporary shift in perspective and a greater variety of expression. The narrator’s interpretive interventions, especially in moral or emotional judgments, affect the semantic layer of the story and contribute to a deeper understanding of its tragic atmosphere. Overall, the story of Rostam and Sohrab illustrates a dynamic interaction between extra-diegetic and intra-diegetic narration, in which the connection between the narrator’s perspective and the characters’ experiences gradually and multilayeredly takes shape.

Keywords

• Shahnameh
• Rostam and Sohrab
• narrative
• narrator
• omniscient narrator

Main Subjects

• متون حماسی