Application of Symbol in Three Parts of the Structure of a Narrative from Haft Peykar

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Shahid Beheshti University

2 M.A. of Persian Language and Literature, Shahid Birjand University

Abstract

One of the different kinds of literary criticism is mythological criticism which is a
method born out of Yung’s theories on collective unconscious. A mythological critic’s
task is to analyze the archetypes of a literary work as representations of the collective
unconscious of the writer or the poet’s mind; archetypes which are prevalent in that
society or people’s mind or above that, in all humanity. Human’s mind often turns
such archetypal beliefs and behaviors into symbolic ways, and one manifestation of
the appearance of such archetypes as symbols alongside dreams and sleep, etc. is
literary creations.
Nizami’s Haft Peykar is a work full of mythical symbols and archetypal applications.
In this essay, it is tried to offer an analysis of a verse narrative of this work using the
tools that Yung’s psychological model in relation to collective unconscious and also
Northrop Frye’s theories on mythos give us in order to shed light on the symbolic
applications of this narrative.

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