A Study of the Postmodernist Aspects of the "Rood-e-Ravi" Based on the Opinions of "John Barth

 
 

Introduction

The novel "Rood-e-Ravi" the famous work of "Abutorab Khosravi" has interesting values ​​and characteristics in terms of language, structure, story elements and narrative techniques, which deserves to be examined and identified from different angles and has attracted the attention of many researchers. Among them: "Analysis of Mythological Elements in Rood e Ravi" written by "Pooran Alizadeh" (2016), "Deep Mythology of Rood e Ravi" written by "Teymoor Malmir" (2017) and a review of the recent article by "Narjes Al-Sadat Sangi" (2009) and numerous dissertations written about it in different universities.
The characteristics governing the structure and narration methods of "Rood e Ravi" indicate that this novel has clear and superior postmodernist effects among different schools of story writing. Therefore, one of the necessary aspects of examining this narrative - which has been neglected until now - is examining it from the perspective of postmodernism, which will determine its place among the postmodern works of Iran and the world. On the other hand, postmodernity itself has many dimensions and ambiguities. So, "if someone seeks to find the features of postmodernism in the novel, he will probably never reach his goal" (Abvisani, 2011:5). Therefore, in the review of the mentioned novel, it is sufficient to base the reflective opinions of one of the prominent theorists and writers of postmodernist works, that is, "John Barth", which has a more specific framework among the diverse and numerous intellectual bases available.
 

Methodology

By reflecting on the fiction and research works of "John Barth" and citing research such as the article "Postmodern Novel" written by "Hossein Payande" in which a part of John Barth's views is explained in the article "Enrichment Literature" and from Important and valid backgrounds are considered for the present article, John Barth's opinions can be summarized as follows:
According to Barth, in order to liberate literature from the impasse of depletion caused by the disillusionment of writers - which itself was the result of the consequences of industrialization and excessive modernity - the rehabilitation and enrichment of literature as an undeniable necessity must be in the spotlight. Considering the social and cultural conditions of the post-modern era and the exemplary use of pioneering works in this field, this major motive and ultimate goal (that is, enrichment of literature) is possible with the following mechanisms, as intermediate motives or intermediate goals:

Focusing on the narrative self and the appropriate style of narration instead of the subject of the narration.
The reduction of the author's undisputed dominance, which implies an increase in the position of the characters in the advancement of the narrative, and the strengthening of the reader's role in drawing and understanding the implicit meaning of the work.
Focusing the meaning and content of the work on the philosophical issues and dilemmas of the postmodern era.

The technical methods of writing and narration emphasized by John Barth to achieve these goals are:

Creative mixing of dissonant things and incompatible elements, such as reality and imagination, pre-modern and post-modern, etc.
Inserting images and content from other works during the narration.
Metafiction.
Involvement of real characters in plot.
Multiple in viewing angles.
Emphasizing the elements of language and rhetoric and showing off the act of writing.
Ontological content and dealing with thought-provoking ontological issues in the postmodern era.

In the upcoming research, the text of Rood e Ravi is studied based on these indicators and examples related to each are extracted, categorized and analyzed. The close connection of these components with each other makes the use of one of them in the narrative lead to the emergence of other indicators and propositions with a lot of common evidence and examples. For example, the mixing of multiple issues and topics is a general indicator that includes other postmodern features, such as multiple viewpoints, writing variety, frequent suspension of the narrative, and irregularity of time, etc. Postmodernism uses this combination as an effective method to highlight the new narrative style with various postmodernist indicators (Ref: Payande, 2007:25). Therefore, the author tries to prevent the unnecessary increase of clauses and titles, infrequently used indicators in the discussed narrative, under the frequently used ones -which components are considered the main research- should be investigated.
 

Discussion

The study of Rood e Ravi based on the specified components shows:
The creative mixing of disparate things includes almost all the story elements and narrative components of this work (tone, point of view, opposite and contradictory concepts, and setting, etc.) with many examples. The foundation of plot narration is based on the falsification of history and the variety of writing styles and old or new writing types. A significant part of the text of the narrative is the inclusion of detailed materials from sources created by the author in new and old styles along with seven pictures (caricatures) attributed to old sources. Overt and covert referring to the story itself during the narration is another feature of this novel, which is less useful compared to other components.
The dominant semantic element in Rood e Ravi is the philosophical doubts and thought-provoking ontological ambiguities, which is influenced by the post-modern "uncertainty" thought and flows throughout the narrative as an unsolved mystery and traces of it can be seen in all elements and components. Even text-building words such as the high frequency of doubt restrictions and verbs that have a doubtful function (as if, it is said, they said, etc.) are carriers to reflect this meaning. But the most important components and methods that have a deep connection with this topic are: the unknown nature of the characters, the types of metamorphosis and the sameness of the characters.
 

conclusion

The investigation and analysis of Rood e Ravi with a postmodernist approach shows that this novel can be counted among Iranian postmodern works and a localized example of global postmodernism. In this localized sample, the use of various methods - which gives a significant prominence to the dimension of narration and the quality of the design of meaning - does not lead to the insignificant effect of meaning and the trivialization of the Hegelian-based semantics that governs Iranian works, and these deconstructive methods do not follow the extreme enigma and divisiveness of the narrative.
The most important postmodernist component in Rood e Ravi (both quantitatively and qualitatively) is the "falsification of history" which is used in an intertextual and parodic way and has led to the appearance of the most postmodernist effects; The most widely used of them is to challenge history and create doubt in those things that are known as reality, and it leads to raising ontological questions in the minds of the audience. Khosravi raises these issues not only by using narrative techniques, but also expresses them directly and prominently in the content of dialogues and descriptions of the text.
Petrification and dogmatism arising from ignorance and misplaced prejudices, superstition and stratification, hypocrisy etc., and the moral and social harms caused by them are the usual and widely used concepts in literary works that are narrated in a different way in Rood e ravi.
Khosravi mixes the hypocritical asceticism of "Meftahi" and the superficial modernity of "Rezashahi" (in his opinion) with tricks such as metafiction and falsification of history in such a way that as if, like repeated and continuous images in two opposite mirrors, they display the fundamental disease of deception and pretense throughout history.