Analysis of the Story “The Lion and the Cow” and “Investigating the Work of Demna” Based on Receiving Theory

Document Type : scientific-research

Authors

1 PhD Student Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.

2 Professor in Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.

10.22059/jlcr.2023.350905.1899

Abstract

“Kalila and Demna” was originally written in Sanskrit. This book, after being translated into Pahlavi by “Borzoye Tabib” during the Sassanid period, faced a great fate and was translated into most languages of the world. Kalila and Demna is actually a policy under the cover of allegorical and moral stories. Apparently, its author intended to use this cover and allegory; Especially “Fable” prevents the audience from a clear understanding of the main subject of the book, i.e. political teachings. The subject of this study is to examine one of the main stories of this book; That is, “the lion and cow” is using the theory of “Aesthetics of Perception”. The story in question is one of the most prominent secret stories of this book and the scene of the power struggle between the lion (ruler) and a jackal named Demna (revolutionary person). The official narration of this story, which is related to the territory of a young lion and his followers and the accidental presence of a cow (Shanzabeh) among them and the events that followed, has tried to rely on the originality of the authors' opinion and implicit bias towards the ruler. It is to make Demna appear guilty in the process of Shanzabeh's death and consider the reason for his trial and death to be only a conspiracy to kill Shenzabeh. While the fight of Demna with power and crossing the red lines and openly criticizing the lion has put him in such a situation. By using the theory of "Aesthetics of Perception", we can find signs in the story that show that the main reason for designing this story was the opposition of Demna to the rulership. The aforementioned theory, which has a deep connection with literary studies, was founded at the University of Konstanz- Germany- by Eiser and Yaos, and became known as the Konstanz School. Considering the fixed meaning of literary texts to be baseless, Eiser and Yaos believed that it is possible to discover the meaning by reading and lead the readers to play a role in the production of meaning. This research was done to answer these questions:1. Is the existing text and reading of the story of the lion and the cow the most acceptable reading of the story? 2. How can the story of the lion and the cow be interpreted based on the theory of reception and provide another reading of it? As a result of this research, by using the descriptive-analytical method and using library resources, he has tried to analyze the story of the lion and the cow, based on the originality of the reader's understanding, and search for Demna 's work, and get a new understanding of the story and it shows that has not been presented so far. The results of this method which is based on different readings is to create pluralism and open new horizons. Thus, the result of this study, if successful, can be a model for interpreting similar texts.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Literary Criticism and Rhetoric
Volume 12, Issue 2 - Serial Number 30
September 2023
Pages 91-110

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History

  • Receive Date: 03 December 2022
  • Revise Date: 13 March 2023
  • Accept Date: 15 March 2023

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