دانشگاه شهید بهشتی نقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی 20087330 23 37 2026 05 22 The Element of Water in Fantasy and Double Imagination Poems: A Case Study of Michel Strogoff by Jules Verne عنصر آب در منظومه‌های خیال‌پردازی و پندارهای دوگانه؛ مطالعۀ موردی میشل استروگف اثر ژول ورن 1 17 106102 10.48308/clls.2025.238710.1305 FA علی عباسی استاد گروه زبان و ادبیات فرانسه و لاتین، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران سارا شریفی گروه زبان و ادبیات فرانسه و لاتین، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران 0009-0005-0590-5858 Journal Article 2025 02 08 Introduction Water is one of the elements of nature that exists throughout Michael Strogoff's novel. Water in various forms, such as ice in the images of a frozen river, stagnant and stinking water in the images of a swamp, etc. The main question is: what significant relationship do life-giving and stagnant waters have with the diurnal and nocturnal regimes of the imagination? To understand how sense is produced, this research aims to analyze the associative function of the double aspects of the water element in the confrontation of the main character of the story with the obstacles of the journey he has undertaken. Our hypothesis is based on the idea that as we witness the contradiction and duality of the characters from the beginning of the novel, the presence of two regimes of the imagination creates a situation appropriate to the manifestation of the different functions of the water element. In this study, through the ideas of Gaston Bachelard in the field of material imagination and the thought of Gilbert Durand in the poetic regimes of the imaginary, we seek to understand the nature of the imagination created by water in the novel Michel Strogoff by Jules Verne and to explain their semantic functions. In this regard, after having studied the imaginary functions of water in Bachelard, we will analyze the two diurnal and nocturnal regimes according to Gilbert Durand. Finally, by studying the nature of water in the descriptions and sentences taken from the novel Michel Strogoff, we attempt to decipher the semantics of this double element. Keywords : Water, the imagination's daytime regime, the imagination's nighttime regime, Gaston Bachelard, Gilbert Durand, Michel Strogoff. Methodology In Bachelard's study, the moment of perception of imaginative matter is precisely the moment of inner liberation; but this change of images leads to a surprising coherence between them: "If there were no change of images, no unexpected "unity" of images, there would be no imagination and no imaginative action." (Chelebourg 2000, 38) Transformation is therefore considered a characteristic of imagination. "Imagined images transform perceived images." (Chelebourg 2000, 39) According to Gilbert Durand's imagology, dominant reactions emerge in two distinct regimes of the imaginary: "nutritional dominance" and "copulative dominance" are associated with the "nocturnal regime of the imaginary", and "positional dominance" is associated with the "diurnal regime of the imaginary".(Chelebourg 2000, 60) In the Daytime Regime, we witness conflicts born of "contradiction." However, in the Nighttime Regime, night refers to tranquility. Background of the Study The cyclical quality of water makes this substance life-giving. (Bachelard 1942, 22) Frozen water, itself associated with the resistance of matter, appears in various forms in Jules Verne's novel Michel Strogoff. (Verne n. d., 177-178) According to the principle of Bachelard's material imagination and the reign of imagination, "it is the matter which commands the form." (Bachelard 1942, 10) Moreover, the water of the marsh has become the refuge of "thousands of flowers" (Verne, n.d., 303), which creates a mysterious contrast. Thus, the inverted structure of the nocturnal regime refers to the structure of the group of "images of intimacy" (Chelebourg, 2000, 65). Conclusion Frozen water serves an essential function. In Michel's struggle against the Siberian cold, imagination is seen as a diurnal structure so that Michel's resilient spirit can have a heroic function. Even though the marsh water has lost its cyclical properties, it remains a source of life and provides a breeding ground for growth and development. The disruptive and life-giving aspects of water do not act as two opposing aspects of water to negate or suppress the other, because the life-giving nature of water remains permanent. در رمان میشل استروگف اثر ژول ورن، عناصر طبیعت همواره در بطنِ روایت جاری هستند. این عناصر در روایی‌گری حضوری معنادار دارند. نه‌تنها بافت متن را از اطلاعاتِ جغرافیایی و مکان و زمانِ حوادث غنی می‌سازند، بلکه تصاویر رویاپردازانۀ بدیعی خلق می‌کنند. از میان عناصر تکرارشوندۀ طبیعت در این رمان، آب به اَشکال گوناگون وارد پیوستار و نظم معنایی روایت می‌شود. در تخیّل نویسنده آب جان را تازه می‌کند و گاهی توسط آتش بلعیده می‌شود. آب‌های هستی‌بخش و آب راکد هرکدام در چه ارتباط معناداری با منظومه‌های روزانه و شبانۀ خیال‌پردازی قرار دارند؟ از آنجا که نظام‌های تخیل در اثر ادبی از جمله اجزای تشکیل‌دهندۀ معنا هستند، هدف از این نوشتار دریافت چگونگیِ تولیدِ معنا در رمان میشل استروگف از طریق ساختارهای تخیلِ نویسنده است. لذا این پژوهش قصد دارد کارکرد تداعی معانیِ دوگانۀ عنصر آب را در رویاروییِ شخصیت اصلی داستان با موانع سفری که در پیش گرفته است مورد تحلیل قرار دهد. برای دریافتِ تخیّلِ خلق شده در این رمان، با تحلیلِ انواع کارکردهای متمایزِ مادّۀ آب نزد گاستون باشلار و انواع نظام‌های روزانه و شبانۀ رویاپردازی نزد ژیلبر دوران، سعی می‌شود ارتباطِ میان کارکردهای متفاوت عنصر آب و ادراک خیال‌پردازیِ اثر ادبی مورد بررسی قرار ‌گیرد. به عنوان نتیجه، همانطور که آب‌های جاری سرشت هستی‌بخش دارند، آب راکد نیز که در نظام شبانه پدیدار می‌شود نه‌تنها لزوماً کارکردی در انحطاط قهرمان داستان ندارد؛ بلکه حتی همچنان عامل نجات باقی می‌ماند.

https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106102_1d6641569e0967a34a231b699b7ad42c.pdf

دانشگاه شهید بهشتی نقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی 20087330 23 37 2026 05 22 Trans-Subjectivation through Temporality: Catherine Malabou’s Plasticity in Jeanette Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry تراسوژگی در مسیر زمانمندی: خوانش مفهوم سیالیت در رمان جنسیت گیلاس اثر جنت وینترسون از نظر کاترین ملبو 19 33 106101 10.48308/clls.2024.236952.1264 FA هدی نیک‌نژادفردوس دانشکده آموزش آتاترک دانشگاه مارمارا استانبول ترکیه بختیار سجادی دانشیار زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، دانشگاه کردستان، سنندج، ایران. Journal Article 2024 09 19 The present paper means to attentively scrutinize the notion of plasticity in temporality and time in Sexing the Cherry and represent the innate temporality in trans-subjectivation which could be regarded as plasticity. In Malabouean perspective, plasticity enables humans to transform their identity and mental structures based on their life experiences and environmental influences. The attempt would be the manifestation of malleable time and identity which unavoidably could be intermingled with the concepts of mind and memory. Contemplating on the conceptualization of plasticity as revealing the relation between accident and substance, plasticity in time, identity formation, and memory would be lime lighted. Temporality as absolute plasticity would be demonstrated while trans-subjectivation and plasticity would be considered as the two faces of a coin. Brain and therefore identity as the incarnation of time and temporality in body express themselves in the novel in which the boundaries of temporality and identity appear blurring. In Winterson’s novel, Sexing the Cherry, time is transformed, broken, and redefined as a fluid and changeable entity. The notion of the other as the other of the self in the self would be labeled as alterity without transcendence in Catherine Malabou’s stance due to the fact that the other is permanently within the subject. Consequently, alterity without transcendence would be presented as the vital and significant part of plasticity without which the process of plasticity and trans-subjectivation would be flawed. Malabou considers plasticity as representing the brain’s fundamental abilities to change and adapt to new situations, which have major implications for our understanding of identity, authority, and responsibility. Background of Study: Seetha Lakshmi in “The Myth of Normative Gender” claims that “Jeanette Winterson is one of the daring voices among postmodern queer writers whose works celebrate gender fluidity and queer existence. Winterson abundantly alludes to myths and fairytales as vehicles to express the notion that gender also is constructed like a story or history and it is thus not fixed” (2018: 489). Mentioning the hetero-normative society and the obligatory prearranged gender roles in it, Lakshmi adds that Winterson’s characters in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Sexing the Cherry struggle to go beyond the pre-established standards. Methodology: The present study provides a close analysis which consists of selection and discussion of theoretical and descriptive material. The research method of the existing research is, thus, qualitative and categorized as theoretical study. Correspondingly, the existing research will be entirely literature-based in that, in the academic library research, the conclusions are based on the analysis of data of a particular area. The narrators’ definition of time and their contemplation on temporality would be underscored to express the Malabouian viewpoint on the notion of time. Temporality as the absolute plasticity which could be interwoven with the concept of trans-subjectivation would be featured in the novel and the physical manifestation of trans-subjectivation would be stressed in the relationship between the characters as each other’s alter ego, as well. Conclusion: It could be concluded that the narrator in Sexing the Cherry expresses the trans-subjectivity via contemplating on the plasticity of temporality. Not being able to distinguish the distinct boundaries of subjectivity, temporality, locality, and reality, the narrator addresses that the plasticity of temporality embraces all of them. Pondering on time and temporality, the narrator ends up mentioning the equality of the happened and not-happened owing to the fact that whatever has happened is merely a memory which could not be discernible from fantasy. Observing diverse layers of being, the narrator juxtaposes narration and reality, as well. تحقیق حاضر مفهوم سیالیت را از منظر آرا فیلسوف معاصر فرانسوی کاترین ملبو در رمان جنسیت گیلاس نوشته جنت وینترسون مورد بررسی قرارمی‌دهد. سیالیت درونی ازنظر ملبو انسان‌ها را قادر می‌سازد تا براساس تجربیات زندگی و تاثیرات محیطی، هویت و ساختارهای ذهنی خود را دگرگون کنند. بدین منظور سیالیت به‌مثابه عنصری اجتناب‌ناپذیر در زمانمندی و تراسوژگی مورد بحث قرارمی‌گیرد و عامل متغیربودن مفاهیم زمان و هویت است. رابطه‌ی درهم‌تنیده‌ی ذهن و زمان، و زمان و هویت به‌عنوان یکی بودن سیالیت و تراسوژگی نشان داده‌می‌شود و در تجربه‌ی زمان/هویت، تراسوژگیِ شخصیتهای اصلی رمان مورد بررسی قرارمی‌گیرند. زمان به‌مثابه سیالیت مطلق از دیدگاه کاترین ملبو و هویت درمقام تراسوژگی مداوم در جنسیت گیلاس مورد تفحص قرارمی‌گیرند. زمان به‌عنوان جریانی انعطاف‌پذیر و تغییرپذیردر رمان جنسیت گیلاس وینترسون دگرگون می‌شود، می‌شکند، و ازنو تعریف می‌شود.رد‌پای سیالیت و تراسوژگی همانند دو روی یک سکه، و حضور مداوم زمانمندیِ سیال یا سیالیت مطلق در رمان مورد کاوش قرارمی‌گیرند. در نهایت، هویت به‌معنای مشاهده‌ی عبورِ مداومِ خودی به خودِ دیگر در درون شخصیتها، مفهوم "دیگری" را از دیدگاه کاترین ملبو در رمان نشان می-دهد. دیگریِ موجود در سیالیت یا دگرگونگی بدون تعالی ، حضور هرگونه دیگریِ بیرونی را نفی کرده و سیالیت را روندی خودمختار و بدون نیاز به دیگری می‌داند تا جایی که این روند را رهایی‌بخش نشان می‌دهد. ملبو سیالیت را نمایانگر توانایی‌های بنیادین مغز و ذهن برای تغییر و سازگاری با شرایط جدید می‌داند که تاثیرات عمده‌ای در فهم ما از هویت، اختیار، و مسیولیت دارد.

https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106101_dd6537c01de480adf155462a77427be4.pdf

دانشگاه شهید بهشتی نقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی 20087330 23 37 2026 05 22 An Analysis of the Role of Gender Identity in Selected Plays by David Hare بررسی نقش هویت جنسیتی در نمایشنامه های برگزیده دیوید هیر 35 53 106040 10.48308/clls.2025.239659.1337 FA شبنم مهدی زاده خدایاری دانشجوی دکتری روابط بین الملل، دانشکده علوم سیاسی، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، واحد تهران مرکزی، تهران، ایران. جلال سخنور استاد تمام، گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی Journal Article 2025 04 27 Introduction: This article examines the role of gender transfiguration in David Hare’s My Zinc Bed, and A Map of the World in the light of Judith Butler’s theory of Gender Performativity. It investigates whether what Hare’s characters performed through their body and discourse were the internal features in them or the hallucinatory effects of their naturalized and gendered bodies. Butler asserts that performativity is a ritualized production and a constrained reiteration of cultural intelligibility under the compulsory prohibition pressed by the power regimes. Based on what Buttler asserts, the culture constructs gender, which is understood concerning a set of laws. It seems that gender is as fixed as the biology-is-destiny formulation in which culture, not biology becomes destiny, and the domain of gendered subjects is constituted by the body which is itself a construction. Background of the Study: Works of the prolific writer, David Hare, have been studied by many researchers and critics from different points of view, yet, none of them has underlain the tenets of this research. Stephen Coates in his thesis “Alien Nation: David Hare’s History Plays” examines seven plays of Hare, among which Pravda exists. He considers the socio-historical background of Britain after the Second World War and capitalist-patriarchal system, which results in psychological damages mostly on the middle class. Coates challenges the political concepts of Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, and Herbert Marcuse, relating them to the oppression of different social spheres. Coates studies the significant effects of media on the society as well as the tension that each member of the newspaper industry deal. The hypocrisy of the English press which propagates false news to the civilians is the main problem of Coates in his thesis. Methodology: The theme of My Zinc Bed is faith to disillusionment in Thatcherian postwar as the title refers to an image of death. All significations happen in the circulation of the required form of repetition. Obedience is the primary principle in the discourse of AA meetings where both Paul and Elsa used to attend after they quit drinking. The performativity of such a discourse affected their body to the extent that caused both of them to betray Victor while what they experienced was not real love but the love of trouble. In A Map of the World, Stephen as an English journalist practices the social norms of his own culture when he stays in the same hotel with Mehta and Peggy in India. Their stylized bodies receive strict cultural laws based on the gender norms of the society. Hence, the bodily discourses gave the agents the feasibility to establish their intelligible social existence. Conclusion: It can be concluded from My Zinc Bed and A Map of the World that the agent cannot be known feasible out of the practices of cultural discourse. The AA meetings in My Zinc Bed and the years of living in England in A Map of the World transfigured the bodily discourse of Elsa, Paul, and Mehta. Attending AA cults caused both Elsa and Paul to reiterate and perform a kind of discourse, which prohibited them from any kind of addiction. The passive medium of Peggy’s body in A Map of the World was materialized in the American cultural discourse. Affected by the English cultural discourse, Mehta performed the theatricality of English self-representation, which failed to conform to the Indian naturalized cultural hegemonies thus resulting in his unintelligibility. The socially forcible prohibitions create the discursive conditions in which an individual attempt to constitute a hallucination of naturally standard bodily interactions. این مقاله به بررسی نقش دگرگونی جنسیت در نمایشنامه های تختخواب رویین من و نقشه ی جهان اثر دیوید هِیر در چارچوب نظریه ی »اجراگریی جنسیت» جودیت باتلر میپردازد. هدف پژوهش این است که مشخص کند آیا آنچه شخصیت های هِیر از طریق بدن و گفتمان خود اجرا میکنند، بازتاب ویژگی های ذاتی و درونی آنهاست یا محصول تأثیرات بدن های جنسیت یافته ی آنها توسط تکرار هنجارهای فرهنگی . بر اساس دیدگاه باتلر، اجراگری جنسیتی به عنوان یک برساخت اجتماعی، تحت سلطه ی ممنوعیت های اجباری اعمال شده توسط رژیم های قدرت، فهم پذیری فرهنگی سوژه را بازتولید میکند. از سوی دیگر، فرد با جنسیت معین شده متولد نمیشود، بلکه به واسطه ی تکرارفرآیندهای گفتمانی متاثر ازهنجارهای فرهنگی در یک جامعه، به سوژه ای تبدیل میشود که جنسیت زن/مرد در بدن او تعریف شده و به مرور زمان شکل میگیرد. تحلیل نمایشنامه های تختخواب رویین من و نقشه ی جهان نشان میدهد که جنسیت های سیال شخصیت های هِیر در چارچوب هژمونی فرهنگی، دچار فرازها و فرودهایی میشوند که منجر به بازنمایی بدن هایشان منطبق با هنجارهای اجتماعی میشود. در این راستا، گفتمان های بدنی به شخصیت ها امکان میدهد تا موجودیت اجتماعی معقول و فهم پذیر خود را تثبیت کنند. این در حالیست که امیال ذاتی، بدن ما را به سمت بازنمایی خود به عنوان سوژه ای پیرو واقعیت جنسی مان سوق میدهند، و این بازنمایی ها که به ظاهر ذاتی جلوه میکنند، درواقع تحت تأثیر سازوکارهای گفتمانی و فرهنگی قرار داشته و مسیر اجرای جنسیت را تعیین میکنند.

https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106040_3103d360cc4374098200f779138723c3.pdf

دانشگاه شهید بهشتی نقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی 20087330 23 37 2026 05 22 Ideological Fantasy in Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children فانتزی ایدئولوژیک در رمان فرزندان امپرطور اثر کلر مسود 55 71 106211 10.48308/clls.2025.241093.1368 FA امیر ریاحی نوری استادیار زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی گروه زبان انگلیسی، دانشکده علوم انسانی، دانشگاه غیاث‌الدین جمشید کاشانی، قزوین Journal Article 2025 08 13 Introduction: The present article surveys the concept of ideological fantasy as explored through Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children. The novel, longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, is categorized as a post-9/11 novel. Unlike many prominent novels in this genre, such as Don DeLillo's Falling Man, Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and John Updike's The Terrorist, The Emperor's Children does not directly address the September 11 attacks. Instead, the narrative focuses on the lives of a group of New York's cultural and artistic elite in the months leading up to the 9/11 attacks. Background Studies: Pointing to the setting of the novel, Aaron DeRosa argues the novel is set in “set in the days and months prior to 9/11, but situating the reader in a position of suspense and anticipation, as he / she knows what will happen in the fall of 2001” (DeRosa 2014, 97). Likewise, Marjorie Worthington tends to read Messud’s The Emperor’s Children in the context of 9-11 declaring that 9/11 is a moment “when they either reevaluate what is most important to them” (Worthington 2011, 112). Reading the novel with reference to the 9/11 attacks, David Simpson suggests that what happens in the novel can be regarded as an “acknowledgement of the limits of fiction in the face of an appalling and indescribable event” (Simpson 2008, 218). Dominic Head argues that the novel is based on a professional quest and contends that in The Emperor’s Children “the nature of ‘success’ is the focus of the satire; but it is also at the heart of the seriousness, less easily categorized, that finally emerges” (Head 2009, 132). He also regards 9/11 attacks as “a kind of catharsis” (Head 2009, 134). Amanda Claybaugh argues that Messud’s novel relies on dialogue. In her perspective, the novel “allows these shallow people to speak for themselves, devoting a great portion of the novel to dialogue” (Claybaugh 2006, 15). Arin Keeble contends that The Emperor’s Children narrates the setting up of life-changing absolutes that appear in novels like Don DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007) and Jay McInerney’s The Good Life (2005). However, unlike the aforesaid novels, in Messud’s novel characters “return quickly to their pre-9/11 conditions” (Keeble 2011, 369). Methodology and Argument: This study is based on the descriptive-analytical method examining Messud’s novel by drawing on the ideas of the distinguished contemporary philosopher Slavoj Žižek. Žižek considers ideology not as an epistemological issue or a form of false consciousness, but as a conscious act because in our modern world, we already know that we are receiving a distorted version of reality. Žižek calls an action that persists despite our awareness of its falsity an ideological fantasy. However, in some critical moments, the ideological fantasy collapses and the subject is confronted with the Real Order as a corollary of the disruption of the symbolization process in the Symbolic Order. Findings and Conclusion: Applying Žižek to The Emperor’s Children, it seems that Messud’s novel depicts an ideological society in which the characters are cynical subjects who, ruled by ideological fantasy, cynically convince themselves that they do not take things seriously, while in practice they take their fantasy seriously. Furthermore, the events of September 11, functioning as a spectral supplement, can be regarded as a rupture in ideological fantasy which makes readers confront the Real Order. Finally, by avoiding a definitive judgement and by making the readers of the novel participate in the experience that there is nothing behind the Other and the emperor has no clothes, Messud enables readers to traverse their ideological fantasy. مقاله‌ی حاضر با خوانشی انتقادی به واکاوی مفهوم فانتزی ایدئولوژیک با نگاهی به رمانِ فرزندان امپرطور اثر کلر مسود می‌پردازد. این نوشتار پژوهشی است بنیادی بر مبنای روش توصیفی-تحلیلی که از مواضع فکری نظریه‌پرداز معاصر اسلاوی ژیژک بهره می‌جوید. ژیژک ایدئولوژی را نه یک مسئله‌ی معرفت‌شناختی و یا یک آگاهی زودباورانه بلکه یک عمل آگاهانه می‌داند زیرا امروزه، ما از قبل می‌دانیم که در حال دریافت نسخه‌ای تحریف‌شده از واقعیت هستیم. ژیژک عملی را که علیرغم آگاهی از نادرستی آن ادامه می‌یابد، فانتزی ایدئولوژیک می‌نامد. با این وجود، در برخی از لحظات بحرانی، به دلیل مختل شدن فرایند نمادسازی در امر نمادین، امکان فروپاشی فانتزی ایدئولوژیک و مواجه مستقیم سوژه با امر واقعی فراهم می‌آید. هدف پژوهش پیش‌رو پرداختن به این پرسش است که چگونه رمانِ مسود فانتزی ایدئولوژیکِ سوژه‌های بدبین‌آگاه را به تصویر کشیده و چگونه مواجه‌ی شخصیت‌های اصلی و خوانندگانِ رمان با امر واقعی، عبور از فانتزی ایدئولوژیک را امکان‌پذیر می‌سازد. با توجه به کاربست آرای ژیژک، چنین استدلال می‌گردد که رمان مسود جامعه‌ای ایدئولوژیک را به تصویر می‌کشد که در آن شخصیت‌های داستان سوژهایی بدبین‌آگاهی هستند که تحت‌تاثیر فانتزی ایدئولوژیک با بدبینی‌آگاهی به خود می‌قبولانند که مسائل را جدی نمی‌گیرند، در حالی که در عمل فانتزی خود را جدی می‌گیرند. در خاتمه، مسود با پرهیز از صدور یک حکم نهایی و با مشارکت دادن خوانندگانِ رمان در این تجربه‌ از واقعیت که هیچ چیزی پشت آن دیگری بزرگ وجود ندارد و امپراطور لباسی به تن ندارد، عبور از فانتزی ایدئولوژیک را ممکن می‌سازد.

https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106211_35240df4cdef5294ad5c2d49e3282863.pdf

دانشگاه شهید بهشتی نقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی 20087330 23 37 2026 05 22 Gaps, Negation, and Wandering Viewpoint: An Iserian Reading of Madness and Mystery in Poe’s “The Raven” and Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” شکاف‌، نفی، و دیدگاه سرگردان: خوانشی ایزری از جنون و رازآلودگی در «کلاغ» ادگار آلن پو و «عاشق پورفیریا»ی رابرت برونینگ 73 89 106614 10.48308/clls.2026.242734.1407 FA حسین نظری گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، دانشکده زبان‌ها و ادبیات خارجی، دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران امیرفرشاد شیرزائی گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی دانشکده زبان‌ها و ادبیات خارجی دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران 0009-0002-8470-6926 Journal Article 2025 12 02 Introduction This study investigates how mystery and madness in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” emerge not as mere psychological traits but as readerly effects produced through poetic structure and interpretive activity. Rather than treating madness as an internal condition, the analysis demonstrates how devices such as repetition, gaps, negation, wandering viewpoint, and monologic narration generate uncertainty and interpretive pressure. Drawing on Wolfgang Iser’s reception aesthetics, the study approaches reading as a dynamic process in which determinate textual cues interact with strategic omissions, prompting inference and continual revision. The central argument is that experiences of mystery and madness are constructed through patterns of cancellation, reconfiguration, and retroactive interpretation embedded in each poem’s formal structure. Background of the Study Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” occupies a distinctive position among his works both thematically and structurally. Accordingly, a wide range of literary studies have examined this poem from perspectives such as linguistics, Gothic studies, mythology, symbolism, and psychology. Literary critics have long regarded one of the primary reasons for the poem’s acoustic richness as deriving from the technical concept of the “refrain,” that is, the preservation of sound alongside the shifting meanings that the sound generates. Robert Browning is the most famous and influential figure in dramatic monologue in English poetry, to the extent that the term “dramatic monologue” is almost synonymous with his name. Browning’s dramatic monologues have been examined through various theoretical lenses, including psychology, power, crime, the relationship between speaker and listener, silence, and gender relations. Despite the breadth of the existing scholarship on both poems, no critical reading of the poems through Iser’s theories has yet been offered. Methodology Iser’s Reception aesthetics provides the theoretical foundation for this study. Iser posits that literary works consist of determinate segments linked by gaps or “blanks”, which require the reader to supply missing connections. These gaps create “negativity”, a force that propels meaning forward through constant hypothesis-making. The study uses a four-stage analytic method designed to trace how meaning develops through reader participation. First, a gap audit identifies instances of withheld information, which create interpretive indeterminacy. Second, a negation trace examines moments where the text cancels earlier possibilities or reverses interpretive expectations, producing the “negativity” central to Iser’s theory. Third, itinerary reconstruction maps the reader’s shifting perspective by analyzing how successive cues reshape initial assumptions. Finally, a constraint test evaluates the plausibility of interpretations for genre-based inference, ensuring that proposed readings remain grounded in textual features. Applied to “The Raven,” this method focuses on the refrain’s shifting semantics and the interplay of anticipation and surprise. For “Porphyria’s Lover,” the analysis emphasizes monologic form, the lack of an external truth-checking voice, and self-exonerating syntactic patterns. Together, these analytical steps reveal how each poem manages the reader’s interpretive trajectory to produce the sensation of mystery and madness. Conclusion The findings demonstrate that both poems cultivate their atmosphere of mystery and madness through formal strategies designed to shape the reader’s interpretive labor. In “The Raven,” the refrain acts as a mechanism of iterative cancellation, maintaining sonic stability while compelling semantic readjustment. In “Porphyria’s Lover,” gaps and contradictions embedded in the speaker’s monologue demand active inference and correction. In each case, the psychological effects associated with the poems emerge from the interactive process between text and reader. By foregrounding the role of form and reader participation, the study affirms that the enduring power of these works lies in their ability to orchestrate interpretive uncertainty and emotional intensity. این مقاله با تکیه بر نظریۀ دریافت ولفگانگ ایزر به تحلیل شعرهای «کلاغ» اثر ادگار آلن پو و «عاشق پورفیریا» اثر رابرت برونینگ می‌پردازد تا نشان دهد آنچه در این اشعار معمولاً جنون و رازآلودگی تلقی می‌شود، نه مضامینی ذاتی بلکه تاثیرات خوانشی ساخته‌شده توسط فرم است. با بهره‌گیری از مفاهیم ایزری شکاف‌، نفی، و دیدگاه سرگردان، این مطالعه آشکار می‌سازد که هر دو شعر با بهره‌گیری از گسست‌ها و لغوهای سازمان‌یافته، شیوۀ همکاری خواننده را مدیریت می‌نمایند. در «کلاغ»، ترجیع‌بند ثابت «هرگز دیگر» همچون مترونومی منفی، میدان معنایی را پیوسته محدودتر می‌سازد. در «عاشق پورفیریا»، ساختار تک‌گویی نمایشی، شنوندۀ غایب، و دستور زبانِ خودتوجیه‌گر، خواننده را وادار می‌سازد تا با هر نشانۀ تازه، برداشت‌های پیشین را بازنگری نماید. مقاله یک پروتکل تحلیلی قابل‌انتقال، شامل بررسی شکاف‌ها ← ردیابی نفی ← بازسازی مسیر خواننده ← و آزمودن محدودیت‌ها، پیشنهاد می‌کند تا نشان دهد که طراحی ساختار متن چگونه می‌تواند توجه خواننده و پاسخ او را هدایت نماید. در نهایت، این مطالعه آشکار می‌سازد که تأثیر این شعرها نه از آزادی تفسیری، بلکه از محدودیت‌های صوری ناشی می‌شود که مسیر خوانش را شکل می‌دهند و از رهگذر آن خودِ تجربۀ خواننده به محصول ساختار ادبی بدل می‌شود.

https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106614_1d60397948d82b455ea17db9523a6590.pdf

دانشگاه شهید بهشتی نقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی 20087330 23 37 2026 05 22 The Bite of the Night: Howard Barker and Post-Truth Allegory «سوز شب»: هاوارد بارکر و تمثیل در عصر پساحقیقت 91 111 106522 10.48308/clls.2025.241806.1384 FA طاهره رضایی دانشیار دانشکده ی زبان های خارجی دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی Journal Article 2025 10 01 This article examines Howard Barker's play The Bite of the Night (1988), one of the earliest dramatic works to exhibit sensitivity to the emergence of the post-truth era in the 1980s. Barker, the prominent English playwright, introduced his “Theatre of Catastrophe” style in political theatre, which transcends linear and realist narratives to focus on ethical complexities and ontological ambiguities. The article argues that The Bite of the Night simulates the crisis of truth and contemporary moral ambiguity by dismantling classical narrative structures—such as dramatic causality and psychoanalytic character development—and employing postmodern allegory. In this work, the post-truth worldview is represented through impulsive emotional decisions and oversimplified analyses, placing the audience in irresolvable ethical dilemmas. The historical context for this shift can be traced to Margaret Thatcher's policies (Thatcherism), which promoted extreme individualism and eroded collective narratives, thereby undermining public trust in cultural authorities. Concurrently, the dominance of digital media and visual culture from the 1980s transformed social communications, shifting civic participation toward digital interactions. Within this framework, political theatre moved away from rational analysis and started to seek emotional impacts and narrative-subverting strategies. Similarly, Barker, distancing himself from socialist theatre, offers no explicit message in The Bite of the Night; instead, he challenges the audience's emotions and ethics. The character of Helen, inspired by Homer's Helen of Troy in the Iliad, becomes an allegory of meaning’s instability and interpretive failure. Savage, a Greek classicist and archaeologist, searches for the original Troy and the essence of Helen amid eleven ruined cities, each symbolizing historical repetition and cultural decay. Helen’s gradual mutilation—from emblem of love and beauty to incarnation of sexual desire and death—not only showcases Barker's poetic violence but also exposes cultural processes of meaning-making. Drawing on new definitions of postmodern allegory offered by Jeremy Tambling, allegory in this play is not a tool for decoding fixed truths but a process of endless deferral and semantic slippage. This “possibility of multiple meanings,” draws the audience into a self-aware game of signification. The article’s theoretical framework rests on post-truth discourse, which Lee McIntyre (2018) describes as the abuse of power amid the weakening of truth's foundations. William S. Boltz (2022) traces its roots to 1950s advertising lies and Reagan's policies, yet the article emphasizes Barker's prescient sensitivity in the 1980s. The play's non-linear structure and contradictory dialogues immerse the audience in ontological bewilderment, where competing narratives supersede reality. The research builds on interpretations of the play by David Ian Rabey (1989), focusing on “ecstasy through catastrophe”; Charles Lamb (2005) discussing linguistic seduction; and Caroline Gritzner (2015) analyzing Helen's duality, and moves beyond them in correcting the misinterpretation of allegory in the play. Ultimately, this interpretation not only highlights Barker's significance in contemporary theatre, but also redefines political theatre as a “laboratory for the ethical crises of our age.” In today’s world, where Brexit and Trump epitomize post-truth, The Bite of the Night remains strikingly relevant, underscoring the need for innovation in representation to enable social intervention. The article suggests that Barker's Theatre of Catastrophe, by unveiling cultural mechanisms of reality construction, serves as a vital tool for resisting dominant narratives. این مقاله به بررسی نمایشنامه «سوز شب» (۱۹۸۸) اثر هاوارد بارکر می‌پردازد که یکی از نخستین آثار دراماتیک است که نسبت به ظهور عصر پسا-حقیقت در دهه ۱۹۸۰ میلادی حساسیت نشان می‌دهد. با تمرکز بر تئاتر فاجعه بارکر، مقاله استدلال می‌کند که این نمایشنامه، از طریق شکستن ساختارهای روایی کلاسیک و بهره‌گیری از تمثیل پسامدرن، بحران حقیقت و ابهام اخلاقی معاصر را شبیه‌سازی می‌کند. در بستر سیاست‌های تاچریسم و سلطه رسانه‌های دیجیتال، تئاتر سیاسی از گفتمان منطقی به تأثیرات احساسی و روایت‌شکنانه گرایش می‌یابد و شخصیت هلن در این نمایش به تمثیلی از ناپایداری معنا و شکست تفسیر بدل می‌شود. با تکیه بر تعاریف جدید از تمثیل پسامدرن و با تکیه بر مباحث نظری حول موضوع پسا-حقیقت این مقاله نتیجه می‌گیرد که بدن مثله شده‌ی هلن و ساختار غیرخطی نمایش، فرایندهای فرهنگی معناسازی را افشا می‌کند و تماشاگر را در سردرگمی هستی‌شناختی پسا-حقیقت غوطه‌ور می‌سازد. این خوانش نه تنها اهمیت بارکر در تئاتر معاصر را برجسته می‌کند، بلکه تئاتر سیاسی را به عنوان «آزمایشگاهی برای بحران‌های اخلاقی» بازتعریف می‌نماید.

https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106522_f334569779d4040e93390420f346764f.pdf

دانشگاه شهید بهشتی نقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی 20087330 23 37 2026 05 22 Violation of Grice’s Cooperative Principles in Russian Poetry with Emphasis on Presupposition and Implicature نقض اصول همیاری گرایس در شعر روسی با تأکید بر پیش انگاشت و تضمن 113 129 106483 10.48308/clls.2025.242126.1390 FA مریم مرادی دانشگاه علامه طباطبائی Journal Article 2025 10 22 Introduction: This research examines the pragmatic dimension of Russian poetry through Grice’s Cooperative Principle. Although Grice’s four maxims—Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner—were introduced to explain cooperative conversation, poetic discourse deliberately violates them. In poetry, such violations are not communicative failures but strategic devices that enrich expression, creating implicit meanings, presuppositions, and multiple interpretations. Russian poetry, from classicism to the avant-garde, offers a rich field for observing how these deviations from conversational norms function as aesthetic and rhetorical mechanisms. The study aims to reveal how violating Grice’s principles contributes to the expressive, ambiguous, and ideological depth of Russian verse. This study draws on Grice’s (1975) theory of implicature and the Cooperative Principle, further developed by Levinson (1983) and Yule (1996). These frameworks emphasize that presuppositions and implicatures determine discourse interpretability. Building on this theoretical base, several scholars have extended Gricean pragmatics to various discourses. Yureva (2017) studied presupposition in social advertising, showing how existential, propositional, and evaluative presuppositions create implicit persuasion. Rahmani (2022) applied similar analysis to Persian drama, revealing that social hierarchies govern the use of structural vs. lexical presuppositions for control and interrogation. Meghdari and Ezaddost (2017) identified pragmatic effects—irony, metaphor, concealment, emphasis, ambiguity, contradiction, humor—stemming from Gricean violations in Persian interaction. Similarly, Piran Kashani and Modarreszadeh (2024) demonstrated that poetic dialogue length does not reduce aesthetic value but highlights creative deviation; breaches of the Maxim of Quality mirror inner emotion and intuition. Rashidi (2021) traced such violations in Hafez’s ghazals, linking them to deliberate departures from linguistic norms. In political pragmatics, Bots (2021) analyzed Putin and Obama’s discourse, where ambiguous or indirect strategies embody “disruptive communication” and enact rhetorical power. Collectively, these studies affirm that Gricean violations and the manipulation of presuppositions extend beyond conversation, permeating literary, cultural, and political texts. The present research builds upon this body of work by situating Russian poetry within this pragmatic framework, showing that deviation operates as a rhetorical and aesthetic principle. Alimohammad Mohammadi and Morteza Abdali (2023), through a comparative analysis of The School Principal and The Old Man and the Sea, argue that literary analysis at the level of discourse requires an understanding of linguistic, cultural, and metalinguistic cohesion. From this perspective, the literary text, viewed as a dynamic linguistic event, serves as the medium for realizing interconnected and implicit relations of meaning. Similarly, the study by Alavi and Mohajer (2025), analyzing the prison poetry of Naser Khosrow and François Villon, transcends historicism by exploring shared discursive patterns. Drawing on Mengneau’s framework, they demonstrate how the interaction between “discourse staging” and “linguistic context” generates meaning, presenting the prison experience as a space of resistance and linguistic implicature. Methodology: The study applies a descriptive–analytical approach. Canonical Russian poems were examined to identify specific maxim violations. Each excerpt was analyzed to determine which maxim(s) were flouted and how resulting presuppositions or implicatures shaped meaning. Integrating close reading with pragmatic theory, this method situates each instance within its dialogic or narrative context, revealing how poets manipulate linguistic norms to achieve expressive effects. Conclusion: Findings reveal systematic and purposeful violation of Grice’s maxims across Russian poetry. Pushkin often breaches the Maxims of Relation and Quantity through digressive imagery and abrupt thematic shifts, prompting readers to infer omitted meanings. Akhmatova ubverts Manner, embracing ambiguity and fragmentation that transform dialogue into interpretive struggle. Mayakovsky radically flouts all four maxims, fusing irony, hyperbole, and semantic rupture; his colloquial speech becomes a revolutionary linguistic act. Overall, these poets use Gricean violations as creative strategies rather than communicative failures. Such pragmatic manipulation generates polysemy, amplifies affective and ideological depth, and exposes identity conflicts within Russian poetic discourse. هدف از این پژوهش بررسی کارکردهای زبانی- معنایی نقض اصول همیاری گرایس در شعر روسی است. چهارچوب نظری تحقیق بر مبنای نظریه همیاری گرایس، مفاهیم پیش‌انگاشت و تضمن استوار است. داده‌های پژوهش از اشعار برجسته شاعران روس همچون پوشکین، آخماتووا و مایاکوفسکی گردآوری شده است. تحلیل‌ها نشان می‌دهد که در بستر گفتگوی شاعرانه، نقض هر یک از اصول گرایس نه به شکست ارتباط بلکه به خلق معانی ضمنی لایه‌های تازه‌ی تفسیر منجر می‌شود. نقض اصل کمیت اغلب در قالب ایجاز یا اطناب پدیدار می‌شود و مخاطب را به مشارکت فعال در تکمیل معنا فرا می‌خواند. نقض اصل کیفیت در قالب استعاره و گزاره‌های خلاف واقع، جهان شعری را از سطح واقعیات به سطح تخیل ارتقا می‌دهد. نقض اصل ارتباط از طریق گسست معنایی، افق‌های پیش‌بینی‌ناپذیر در متن می‌ گشاید و نقض اصل روش نیز با ابهام و چندمعنایی‌سازی، فضاهای تفسیری گوناگونی ایجاد می‌کند. روش مقاله توصیفی-تحلیلی و روش گردآوری مطالب نیز کتابخانه‌ای است. دستاوردهای مقاله نشان می‌دهد، نقض اصول همیاری گرایس در شعر روسی راهبردی زبانشناختی و زیبایی‌شناختی است که به واسطه آن شعر از مکالمات روزمره متمایز می‌گردد و کارکرد هنری زبان در بالاترین سطح خود آشکار می‌گردد.

https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106483_f70d82bc1766c8eaead2f5880111080c.pdf

دانشگاه شهید بهشتی نقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی 20087330 23 37 2026 05 22 Accept it and Join Us: Reading Eugene Ionesco through Group Think Theory قبولش کن و به ما بپیوند: کاربست نظریۀ گروه‌اندیشی در نمایشنامۀ کرگدن نوشتۀ اوژن یونسکو 131 152 106550 10.48308/clls.2025.241531.1376 FA زهرا رحیم نوری گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، دانشکده زبان‌های خارجی، دانشگاه اصفهان، اصفهان، ایران زهرا جان نثاری لادانی گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، دانشکده زبان‌های خارجی، دانشگاه اصفهان، اصفهان، ایران Journal Article 2025 09 13 Introduction: This study applies Irving Janis’s theory of groupthink to Eugène Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros to examine how the play dramatizes the psychological mechanisms of collective conformity and the gradual disappearance of critical thought. It asks to what extent the sequences of “rhinocerization” enacted on stage correspond to canonical groupthink components, such as illusion of invulnerability, collective rationalization, belief in the inherent morality of the group, self-censorship, illusion of unanimity, direct pressure on dissenters, and mindguards, and how these mechanisms are instantiated in dialogue, stage action, and dramaturgical structure. By reading Ionesco through a social-psychological lens, the study reframes the play as a case study of cognitive and linguistic processes that enable mass complicity rather than merely an allegory of fascism or existential absurdity. Background of the Study: Although Rhinoceros has been widely read for its allegorical resonance with totalitarianism and for its existential themes, scholarship has underexplored systematic psychological accounts of the play’s group dynamics. Previous criticism has privileged historical, ideological, and existential readings, while recent interdisciplinary work has pointed toward social identity, conformity, and performative aspects of mass subjectivity. Building on Janis (1982) and subsequent developments in group influence research (e.g., McCauley; Turner & Pratkanis; Tetlock et al.), this study situates Ionesco’s dramatic devices within an articulated model of groupthink. This framing addresses a gap in the literature by treating the play not just as political allegory but as an aesthetic experiment that stages the cognitive stages of communal self-deception. Methodology: The research is qualitative, interpretive, and text-centered. The primary text is Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, supplemented by authoritative Persian and English translations to ensure fidelity to linguistic and performative nuances. The analysis proceeded in two phases. First, key scenes, dialogues, and stage directions were identified and segmented for close reading. Second, these segments were coded against Janis’s groupthink taxonomy to track the emergence and interaction of groupthink symptoms across the play’s three acts. The study cross-referenced theoretical sources in social psychology and comparative literary criticism to validate interpretive claims. Attention was paid to how linguistic shifts, rhetorical strategies, character arcs, and mise-en-scène function as aesthetic equivalents of social-psychological processes. Limitations of applying a model derived from small decision-making groups to mass phenomena are acknowledged and addressed through an adapted, metaphorical deployment of the theory. Conclusion: The analysis demonstrates that Rhinoceros stages a coherent sequence of groupthink mechanisms: initial minimization of threat (illusion of invulnerability), collective rationalizations and rewritings of the past, moral inversion that legitimizes the group’s behavior, progressive self-censorship and manufactured unanimity, social pressure to conform, and the emergence of mindguards who control dissent. Characters such as Bérenger, Jean, Dudard, and Daisy exemplify different nodes in this process, Bérenger as the last human resisting absorption, others as vectors of assimilation. The study’s contribution is twofold: it extends literary interpretation by providing a systematic, psychologically informed account of the play’s dynamics, and it suggests a methodological template for applying social-psychological models to dramatic texts. By showing how theatrical form can model cognitive failure in collective contexts, the study argues that Ionesco’s Rhinoceros remains a timely exploration of how language, staging, and affective pressures can dismantle critical thought and normalize injustice. Moreover, the findings inform contemporary performance practice and pedagogy: directors and dramaturgs can employ the groupthink model to make cognitive pressures visible on stage, and scholars can apply the approach to other modern dramas. Future research could pair textual analysis with reception studies to observe how audiences enact or resist staged groupthink. In sum, this study shows that social-psychological models provide a productive hermeneutic for dramatic texts and affirms Rhinoceros as a lasting examination of the processes by which communities systematically normalize violence and silence dissent. این پژوهش نمایشنامه‌ی کرگدن اثر اوژن یونسکو را در چارچوب نظریه‌ی گروه‌اندیشی اروینگ جنیس تحلیل می‌کند و می‌کوشد نشان دهد فرایند تدریجی کرگدن‌شدگیِ شهروندان تا چه حد با مؤلفه‌های روان‌شناختی همنوایی جمعی هم‌پوشانی دارد. پرسش اصلی این است که نشانه‌های گروه‌اندیشی، از قبیل توهم آسیب‌ناپذیری، عقلانیت جمعی، باور به اخلاق ذاتی گروه، خودسانسوری، توهم اتفاق‌نظر، فشار مستقیم بر مخالفان و نقش نگهبانان ذهن، چگونه در سطح گفت‌و‌گو، کنش و ساختار نمایشی کرگدن بازتاب یافته‌اند. روش پژوهش، کیفی و متن‌محور است. بدین‌صورت که ابتدا صحنه‌ها و گفت‌وگوهای کلیدی، به‌طور جزء‌به‌جزء توصیف شده و سپس بر اساس الگوی جنیس تفسیر گردیده‌اند. یافته‌ها نشان می‌دهد که نمایشنامه، با الگوی گروه‌اندیشی همخوانی زیادی دارد: از کوچک‌شمردن اولیه‌ی خطر و عقلانی‌سازی مسخ، تا بازتعریف معیارهای اخلاقی، سرکوب تدریجی تردیدها، شکل‌گیری توهم اجماع و اعمال فشار بر دگراندیشان. شخصیت‌هایی چون بوتار، دودار، ژان و دیزی هر یک مرحله‌ای از این فرایند را مجسم می‌سازند؛ در حالی‌که برنژه، به‌عنوان آخرین انسان، تنها نقطه‌ی گسست در چرخه‌ی گروه‌اندیشی باقی می‌ماند. نوآوری پژوهش در آن است که کرگدن را از سطح تمثیل صرفِ فاشیسم و بحران وجودی فراتر می‌برد و آن را به‌منزله‌ی مطالعه‌ی موردیِ فروپاشی تفکر انتقادی در جوامع توده‌ای صورت‌بندی می‌کند و بدین‌گونه، پیوندی میان نقد ادبی، نظریه‌ی نمایش و روان‌شناسی اجتماعی برقرار می‌سازد.

https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106550_92e9f99c951d8b945e941303fea8b987.pdf