فنون ادبی

Literature plays a crucial role in education, a powerful tool for learning and teaching various subjects. It enriches the educational experience by fostering critical thinking, enhancing language skills, and promoting cultural awareness. Literature can enhance critical thinking and empathy by exposing students to various voices, perspectives, and experiences. This article explores the multifaceted role of literature in the learning and teaching process. Incorporating diverse literary texts in instruction is essential for fostering an inclusive and culturally responsive educational environment. In the present qualitative study seven literature and teaching professors, and twenty-six university students at the BA level were interviewed. The data were analyzed to deduce the relevant themes. The results revealed many positive points in using literary texts in language learning and teaching. In addition, some important themes were obtained from the interview data. In general, it was revealed that diverse texts could reflect students' varied backgrounds and challenge dominant narratives, encouraging learners to explore and appreciate different cultures and histories. This approach promotes student engagement and relevance, as the students see themselves represented in the literature they study. Moreover, different literary texts can serve as powerful tools for discussions around social justice, identity, and power dynamics, helping students to navigate complex societal issues. Ultimately, integrating these texts enriches the curriculum, supports the development of a more equitable classroom, and prepares students to thrive in a multicultural world.

 This study presents a comparative cognitive analysis of repartee—a strategic, adversarial form of verbal interaction characterized by rapid response, subversion, and parallelism—across Persian, Arabic, and English. Repartee is conceptualized as a linguistic duel wherein the responder (H) reconfigures the initiator’s (S) utterance through deliberate mirroring, thereby inverting its intended meaning. This research addresses a notable gap in the literature, as most prior studies have focused primarily on European languages, leaving the cognitive and structural underpinnings in non-European traditions underexplored. Focusing on two core mechanisms, the study examines Structural Parallelism—defined as the replication of the syntactic or logical framework of the initiating utterance to produce a counter-response with an inverted evaluative focus—and Polysemous Parallelism, which exploits inherent lexical ambiguity to reassign meaning and subvert the original communicative intent. Employing Langacker’s (2001) Current Discourse Space (CDS) model, the analysis demonstrates how hyper-understanding and figure-ground reversal operate within the CDS to reconfigure shared conceptual structures. Qualitative analysis of 150 repartee instances (50 per language) reveals universal cognitive strategies: (1) responders detect and subvert implicit assumptions via syntactic/lexical mirroring, and (2) reorient evaluative hierarchies by shifting the figure (salient focus) and ground (contextual assumptions) within the CDS.

Arash , the famous Archer and mythical-historical hero, is a significant absentee from Persian classical poetry, especially Shahnameh . However, in contemporary times, several poets and writers, including Bahram Beyzai, have adopted Arash's narrative. Beyzai creates the most distinctive version of this narrative by offering a modern approach and deconstructing the original narrative. Beyzai's Arash is not the renowned hero and archer but rather a stableman who transforms into a hero without any metaphysical support or physical strength, just by relying on the power of mind and heart. The present study examines the distinctive characteristics of the hero in Beyzai's narrative and, based on Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, analyzes the transformation of Arash from a stableman to a hero. The results show that the most critical differences between Arash in Beyzai's work and the original narrative are: the lack of support from divine forces, lack of extraordinary physical abilities, emphasis on an inner journey rather than an external one, and the focus on the power of heart and mind instead of physical strength. Studying the transformation of Arash's personality based on Lacan's theory shows two stages: the first is Arash's confrontation with the big Other, which separates him from his initial unified perception of the world and turns him into an alienated and split subject. The second and main stage is Arash's victory over the big Other during his symbolic ascent to Mount Alborz. This conquest enables Arash to break through the 'symbolic order' and attain the superior knowledge and power of a hero.

This study highlights the role of idioms and expressions in language acquisition and teaching as essential and basic tools for communicating in any language. Learning idioms, and their complexities and simplicity, creates a significant barrier for language learners because it involves interpretation and comprehension, as there are multi-layered meanings attached to cultural dimensions. This study investigated learners’ and teachers’ opinions on the importance of idioms and expressions in enhancing their linguistic competence and language skills, as well as the challenges faced in learning and teaching them. A qualitative approach was employed to dig into the participants’ experiences. To this end, eight teachers and twenty-seven English language learners from a private language institute were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. It was found that learners realized the importance of idioms in their journey toward fluency in the target language culture, though it was a long journey. This gives particular focus on context-enriched learning, dynamic learning, and exploring cultural studies to boost learners’ knowledge and use of idiomatic expressions. It's training meaningful images into a context for which learners construct a linguistic and cultural understanding of how to operate those images across their entire life span. This study suggests that idiomatic language be given due recognition and that processes be developed to adequately render idiomatic language relevant for improved language learning and acquisition.

Though Mashala-Khan in Harun al-Rashid’s Court is a known novel in contemporary satirical Persian literature, its picaresque features have never been systematically studied. This descriptive-analytical research investigates how such features in the narrative structure and characterization of this novel have been localized and what innovations in combining those features with Persian traditional narrative style are achieved. First, the narrative and episodic structure, the satirical language, and the protagonist’s actions are classified. Then, through a thematic analysis, the function of each feature (travel, poverty, trickery, and disguise) in the socio-critical approach of the text are discussed. The theoretical framework is based on Abrams and Geoffrey (2012) and Cuddens’ (1979) definitions. The findings show the episodes contain three balanced layers of verbal, situational, and structural satire that reveal a localized background to show the social and cultural inequalities of the time. Traveling in time is a symbolic quest for social justice. Poverty and trickery become the protagonist’s motivation through which a bitter satire and popular creativity is achieved. Besides, the disguises turn the obscure identity into a device for revealing the power structure and the corrupted bureaucratic system. This study provides a model for studying contemporary Persian picaresque texts. The model helps us to recognize a combination of Western features of the genre and Persian narrative traditions.

The present study investigates paradox as a cognitive phenomenon within the framework of conceptual metaphor and metonymy, challenging its conventional classification as a rhetorical device. Focusing on Persian mystical literature, the research explores how paradox functions as a dynamic meaning-making mechanism in figurative language. The primary aim is to redefine paradox through cognitive linguistics, demonstrating its integration with metaphor (para-metaphor) and metonymy (para-metonymy) in restructuring perception. The study seeks to: 1) identify the cognitive models underlying paradox, 2) analyze its interaction with other conceptual processes, and 3) illustrate its role in non-linear thinking and knowledge organization. A descriptive-analytical approach is employed, with data purposively sampled from Persian literary texts. Theoretical frameworks include conceptual blending theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) and Ruiz de Mendoza’s cognitive modeling, emphasizing high-level abstraction and mental space networks. Paradox emerges from metaphorical contradictions (e.g., "death is life") and metonymic expansions (e.g., "weeping with laughter"), resolving oppositions through conceptual blending. It operates as a matrix-like strategy, enabling reframing and emergent meanings. Persian mystical texts exemplify this capacity to transcend binary logic and evoke multilayered interpretations.

One type of literary criticism that has received attention in linguistic studies in the twentieth century is structuralist criticism. Accordingly, in structuralist criticism, we can examine the meaning of each phenomenon as a set of rules and a holistic view. One of the thinkers who developed new approaches in this field with the help of Ferdinand de Saussure's views is Roland Barthes. The result of Barthes' theorizing is the five codes model, which was published in one of his works called S/Z . Barthes’ five codes model is one of the best models that semioticians use to analyze texts and find the meaning of the text. Since the theory of codes can be used to analyze any type of narrative and story, this study attempts to provide information in a library-based manner and with a narratological approach to conduct a descriptive-analytical study of two Quranic stories. In this regard, we use two interpretive works, namely Kashf al-Asrar and Tafsir al-Tabari and several other literary commentaries, to analyze these two stories. This study shows that the general structure of Quranic narratives can be deciphered only by considering the structure of the text itself and without considering external factors, with the help of Roland Barthes' narrative codes. In addition, it was concluded that Quranic interpretation and the five codes both have a common goal. By going through the primary and superficial layers of the text, one can discover the inner meanings and reach the secondary layers of the text.