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Sociological criticism is one of the modern and efficient methods of the study of literary texts, and today it has a wide application in the analysis of modern literary geners, especially the contemporary Persian novel.                                 This article aims at the analysis and appreciation of the contemporary Persian novel and explores the historical, political, and sociological structure of the Iranian society reflected in some of these novels. The findings of this research show that:

1.Novel is the most complete genre that might respond positively to   modern sociological studies

2.The Persian novel can explain the structures of the Iranian society very well.

3.The more distance we take from the simple structure of the Iranian society in the constitutional age (i.e. , early nineteenth century), the age of the emergence of the first Persian novels, and move towards the more complicated and intricate contemporary society ,the structure of the Persian  novel becomes more complicated and the social themes become more varied and more complex.

4.The themes and subjects treated by the writers of the Persian novels shift from broad generalizations to specific details. This point, on one hand, shows the individualization of the Iranian contemporary man, who has a proper in the modern novel ,and the change of the structures of the society from the ancient simple ,primitive and heroic state to complicated and modern structures  on the other.

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Azraqi Heravi is one of the great poets of the fifth and sixth centuries who is ranked often as a minor poet. In this paper, the researcher reports a study of the data related to this poet and his life, and, discussing the style of his writing and the innovations he introduces in his poetry, he tries to show that because of these very innovations Heravi is equal to some of his contemporaries if not superior to them. This paper discusses different aspects of his poetry such as his thought, imagination, emotion, language, music and form and gives some evidence to illustrate each of these elements and technical aspects.

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Revival of written works in a society is a way for a better understanding of the society’s culture and civilization. The knowledge of criticism and correction of the texts helps to study the past written works by removing the dust of distortion and time that sits on such works. Saeed Nafisi is a researcher who has entered into this area and corrected some texts in a critical manner for the first time. Most of his efforts were concentrated on reviving verse type texts.

Considering the criteria required in correcting texts, this paper has dealt with his critical methods and views by studying 10 texts corrected by him, including 6 verse type works (Divan-e Anvari, Divan-e Attar, Divan-e Amaaq, Divan-e Rashidoddin-e Vatvat, Robaiyate Baba Afzal, Kkoliat-e Araqi) and four prose type works (Tarikh-e Beyhaqi, Goshayesh and Rahayesh, Lobab-al Albab, Reslaeye Fereydone Sepahsalar).

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Currently, we can hardly find any criticism that has not paid any attention to structural functionalism. Contemporary literary criticism leads to structuralism inspired by de Saussure's linguistic theory. Structural analysis, especially, of narrative works is one of the most extraordinary achievements of contemporary literary criticism. In the stories, fairy tales and epic realm, Vladimir Propp's method is the best for structural stratification and analysis. His method is based on tales stratification and symbolic analysis of each stratum. Vladimir Propp used structural linguistic analysis for narrative analyzing. Propp, having studied one hundred narratives with similar composition,  uncovered the structure of "main narrative" and by analyzing one hundred stories of Russian stories concluded that there were thirty one genres. He believed the method could be applied to other folk tales and even novels. Propp's method has been used by other scholars and sometimes was criticized too. Although  Propp's system has its own defects, it has provided a proper starting point for other theorists and has influenced subsequent theorists. This article follows Propp's model and method and intends to stratify and analyze "Bizhan and Manizhe” Story, one of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh stories, The aim of this article is to probe Propp's model in this story. 

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Critics’ includingVimsat, Brooks, Pen Waren and Renewelek, in their evaluation of poems have focused on differentiating features of classical poetry and modern poetry.Compared with the North branch of literary criticism, the South branch of New criticism has explored the formalistic and structural features of poems. Brooks in his book entitled modern and classical poetry maintains that the formalistic nature of poem stems from an array of intricacies of the corresponding society. Further, he adds that critics should delve into literary works in order to capture the details. Brooks in juxtaposition with narrative system of classical poem tries to establish four categories of formalistic system including categorical, rhetorical, abstract, and associational in the modern poetry. Brooks assumes that non- narrative systems are more complex than narrative ones and sometimes they can be integrated. This results in more density and difficulty in poems. This article probes the possibility of criticizing the contemporary poetry of Persian literature accoding to non- narrative forms.

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"One Thousand and One Nights", like many other literary works of the world, is a mirror which reflects the archetypes that are the product of different mankind’s repeated experiences left at his unconscious. The psychoanalytic study of myths which are a repository of mankind's aspirations and thoughts shows the presence of “collective unconscious” as denoted by Jung, revealed in archetypes.  This study aims to analyze one of the stories of the book "One Thousand and One Nights", named "Jozar", in the light of Jung's findings in the realm of psychology of myth. The findings show that in this story there are some other secondary archetypes other than the major archetypes such as Anima, Animus, Wise old man, Shadow and Mother. The archetypes are classified into three categories: Archetypal situations, characters, and symbols. In this study, different types of archetypal situations are journey, visiting the self, and visiting anima. Different archetypal characters include The wise old man, Anima, Animus, Shadow, and Mother. The archetypal symbols analyzed involve numbers, animals, objects, etc. The present study confirms the high potentials of "One Thousand and One Nights" to be studied as mankind's common collective psyche along with history which includes stories and legends as well. 

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Najdi is one of the outstanding contemporary writers due to his specific style. He has a different attitude towards human life and cultural elements of Iran, which makes his stories a good subject for discussion and research. In this article, two stories of Najdi are analyzed in the light of Deconstruction: “The Day of Asb-rizi” and “The Night of Killing Sohrab”. Deconstruction is mostly based on Derrida’s theory. It originated and was initially used in Philosophy and then it spread to literary criticism. The aim of Deconstruction is to find the binary oppositions, to analyze them in order to reveal the contradictory points and to deny the accepted assumptions. The results of this process is to doubt those beliefs that have been considered as axiomatic up to that time. In Najdi’s stories, the binary oppositions include man/animal, man/nature and man and civilization. In “The Day of Asb-rizi”, the opposition between man and animal, and, freedom and slavery causes some contradictions in the major themes of the story. In “The Night of Killing Sohrab”, the binary opposition is that of harsh patriarchal world/ innocent childish world, or, experience/inexperience.

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Having published his first novel, Ali Mohammad Afghani (born in 1925, Kermanshah) reached the top of his literary career. Considering the dearth of creative literary activities in the years following the coup of 18^th August 1953 and other social, literary and historical reasons discussed in the paper, the novel (written in 1961) was remarkably acclaimed by the readers.Following this acclamation, literary critics also appreciated the author as the greatest contemporary novelist and his work as the greatest novel of the century. Although Afghani wrote several other novels, because of certain reasons discussedin the article he could never regain the acceptance of the readers.Now after half a century of the publication of the novel and its becoming one of the classics in the history of contemporary novel-writing in Iran, we have a new study of the role Ali Mohammad Afghani and his outstanding book in the formation and development of Persian novel.Moreover, we try to show how he has been affected by earlier narrative literature and his impact on subsequent novels.In order to clarify the reasons behind the books popularity with the readers and its position among Persian novels, the sociological and literary dimensions of the work are discussed in this article.

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In this research two kinds of critical approaches are introduced and then some examples of these two approaches are selected and discussed. The aim of this article is to consider the critical fields in Constitution period in Iran, which is counted as the turning point in passing from tradition to modernity. The first approach, in-group criticism, is criticism among the members of one group; the second approach, out-group criticism, is done among the members of two different groups. The example selected for the first approach refers to the “Association of the Faculty” and its two members Mohammad TaghiBahar and Abbas EghbalAshtiani, who stand for Neoclassicism. The second example refers to the “Association of the Faculty” and Bahar in particular and Tajaddod-e Tabriz Journal and TaghiRafat at its heads. The latter group represents revolutionary Romanticism. The method of this research is based ontextual analysis.The analysis of the content of these two approaches shows that the in-group approach in Constitution period was more moderate compared tothe out-group approach and sometimes personal prejudices had a role in the process of criticism. There has been difference in taste in the first approach, and in the second approach the difference is in thought and ideas. If approaches like these could have changedinto movements, they could have been useful in criticism of literature and also in widening the field of criticism. These two approaches, however, had been stopped gradually. Moreover, out-group criticism is considered as the opposition of Neoclassicism and Romanticism in Iran. 

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Pragmatics is related to language use in context. A single sentence can have different functions in different contexts. Hence, the meaning is the same as function and the function does not exist out of context; however, the type of sentence has a decisive role in inferring the right meaning. The interrogative sentence in Persian language has two types of rhetorical and non-rhetorical questions. The aim of rhetorical interrogative statement is to convey the message indirectly and more effectively. Qeysar Aminpour has employed interrogative statements in various and different ways in his five poetry books. The questions mentioned in each poetry book are the results of the poet’s social circumstances and his intellectual-emotional perceptions. By moving from the first period to the third one, the questions become more contemplative and realistic in terms of quality and intellectual aspects. Therefore, by investigating the intentions behind interrogatives based on time process, the intellectual-emotional metamorphosis of the poet can be recognized. Most of these intentions include: 1. Astonishment, 2. Doubt, 3. Criticizing, 4. Hope, and 5. Desperation. Astonishment in Qeysar’s poems moves from certainty in revolution and war goals to astonishment in self-discovery and achievement of the goals. His doubt is basically related to third period due to his astonishments including belief, pragmatic and realistic aspects. The most important intellectual-emotional metamorphoses of the poet include: 1. From certainty to uncertainty, 2. From utopia to real life, 3. From individualism to collectivism, 4. From attitude to insight or from observation to contemplation, 5. From winning the war to victory over the war, and 6. From despair to hope .

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Literary texts are the product of individual unconscious psyche and collective consciousness. In Iranian mythology, Fereydoun and Zahhak are symbols of good and evil. This research is an attempt to demonstrate aspects of growth and decay according to Erich Fromm’s theories. It aims at finding aspects of growth (love of life, love of humanity, freedom from the archetypal Mother) and contrasting them with the manifestations of decay (love of death, narcissism, return to mother’s womb) in respectively the characters of Fereydoun and Zahhak in Shahnameh.

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Simile, which appears in different modes, is one of the major subjects of a branch of rhetoric called Bayan. Some of these modes, such as intellectual-intellectual and sensible-intellectual are not in harmony with the illuminating   role of simile; therefor, the books on Bayanhardlyhave positive attitudes towards these modes of simile, but contrary to this attitude, such similes appear with a high frequency in some literary ages and some Persian texts. By critiquing and analyzing the intellectual similes in Tarikh-e-Vassaf, this article tries to study the reason why these similes were widely used. This research shows that Vassaf’s tendency for this mode of simile was because of his penchant for breaking with tradition and departing from the literary norms, widespread desire for innovation, the limitations of creating simile’s by the restricted views of ancients, general inclination for circumlocution, and a tendency to use the exaggerated forms of imageries. By using artistic elegances,the author of Tarikh-e-Vassaf has tried to elude the negative consequences of these similes, yet he has not been successful in all his efforts. Moreover, one of the important reasonswhy the text is abstruse and obscure, is the high frequency of intellectual similesin this text.

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One of the most important aspects of analyzing literary texts is the consideration of the reflection of the author's thoughts, wishes, griefs and regrets as defense mechanisms. In reviewing the reflection of an author's unconscious in his or her work, psychoanalytic or psychological criticism is often used, in which the critic tries to reveal the influence of the author's mental constraints on hidden layers of the work or to open textual ambiguities using psychoanalytical or psychological principles. The authors of this article have tried to investigate in a short story collection, Be Ki Salaam Konam?, one of Simin Daneshvar’s most important psychological anxieties, that is, "infertility pain"; a pain which though is not traced in Jalal al-Ahmad's independent works, it is present in Daneshvar's stories and appears in different ways. Be Ki Salaam Konam? has become a feminine narrative of Jalal’s Sangi Bar Goori. The subject of most of the stories of the former is "infertility", which is presented using child, adopted child, and grandson in the form of free or affiliated motifs. Daneshvar uses unconscious symbols such as the old women to suggest infertility. The reactions of characters in the stories to infertility can be described through defense mechanisms such as displacement, sublimation and projection. Nonetheless, throughout the discussion, when necessary, the paper will benefit from approaches such as archetypal criticism as well.

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Linguistic politeness is a phenomenon that is usually observed in everyday human interaction and shows how to use language to manage the interpersonal relationships of speakers. Qabousnameh is one of the most important texts of Persian didactic literature, which Onsor Al-Ma’āli wrote in forty-four chapters, with the aim of educating his son, Gilanshah, and his learning about social etiquette, knowledge, and techniques necessary for life, government, statehood, etc. Iranians have long cherished this book because of its didactic value and have used its anecdotes for educating their children. In this article the representation of linguistic politeness in Qabousnameh was studied using the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson. The findings showed that politeness was conceptualized as a social and cultural phenomenon in Qaboosnameh, which is the result of constructive interaction of individuals with mental, expressive and behavioral dimensions: in the mental dimension, consideration of audience and measuring the contextual situation and reflection on speech and its various meanings and effects; in the linguistic and expressive dimension, the standards of eloquence and the etiquette of speech; and in the behavioral dimension, the significant or influential negative and positive speech acts in language politeness were introduced and explained. In this paper, out of many cases that were studied in Qabousnameh, 27 examples were presented using the descriptive-analytical method and the pragmatic approach to the Brown and Levinson theory. According to the author of Qabousnameh, speech acts of the parties to the dialogue can save or threaten the face of the speaker and the audience; therefore, he proposed strategies to save or promote the face of the parties. Qabousnameh can be considered as one of the oldest texts in Persian literature, which mentions body language and the need for its proper use in linguistic interaction and interpersonal relationships.

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The controversy over Nima's literary theory and poetry has a long history. Literary critics, each of them, supported Nima and presented a special interpretation of him. The problem of this research will be to read the opinions of Barahani and Pournamdarians of the seventies as representatives of academic and non-academic criticism. This research showed that Pournamdarian and Barahani made mistakes in their understanding of Nima and sometimes they went too far in their opinions. Despite all this, it can be said that despite trying to understand Nima in a new way, Pournamdarian is still trapped by the stereotyped traditions of literary criticism, which makes him define new poetry under traditional poetry. On the other hand, Barahani has neglected the historical process of Nima's theorizing and poetry, has gone to extremes in some of his opinions and announces a crisis that we can see in the poetry of the seventies. In other words, tradition and modernity are clearly incompatible in the opinions of these two critics. Pournamdarian wants to mix modern poetry with traditional criticism, and Barahani becomes dogmatic in his criticism.
 

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The Persian translation of “The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan” by James Morier is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Persian literature. Mirza Habib Esfahani translated this work into Persian from the French translation of the book. The fact that a translated work, through an intermediary translation, can meet such a reception by the readers in the literature of a language is considered one of the rare and exceptional cases. Since the publication of this work, researchers of language and literature, translation and other fields of humanities have studied its various aspects. However, so far, there has been no research that studies the reception of this translation by the Persian readers from a historical perspective. In this article, based on Jauss’s concept of “Horizon of Expectations” and using the descriptive-analytical method, the researcher has tried to investigate various aspects of the reception of this translation by the Persian readers before and after the Islamic Revolution through reviewing the works and examining the existing texts. To do so, from among the studies available on this work, which comprised about 50 Persian articles and books published since 1942, ten significant works (5 published before and 5 after the Islamic Revolution) were selected and the expectations within them were examined and analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Next, the various themes of the receptions of the Persian translation that were discussed in these ten works were extracted and compared. The findings of the study indicated that during both periods of time, the Persian translation of “The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan” was of interest to the literary taste and in accordance with the expectations of the readers, including writers, critics, and researchers, and it still continues to be widely received by the readers, which has made this work enduring and popular.