The Fantastic-Grotesque in Beh’Āzin’s “The Snake Stone”

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Semnan, Semnan, Iran.

Abstract

 The present study offers a reading of “The Snake Stone,” penned by Mahmũd Etemādzāde aka. Beh’Āzin (1915-2006), as a tale of fantastic-grotesque. With a preliminary discussion on the grotesque and fantastic in relation to non-western literature, the historical background and the interrelationship of the two modes are briefly sketched through. This is followed by a brief review of Beh’Āzin’s writing style. The snake, as the main motif of the story, is then discussed as a grotesque motif, and The snake stone is dealt with concerning common beliefs and superstitions in popular culture. In a combination of theory and discussion, the story is read through its elements of the grotesque and its fantastic aspects. The study is an analytical library-based research, in which the grotesque is both traced in the narrative mode of the text and in its use of language and certain rhetorical devices. The main aim of discussing “The Snake Stone” as a tale of the fantastic-grotesque is to highlight how this theoretical frame can help to shed light on the socio-cultural aspects of the work and how the link between the author’s ideology and the narrative intricately reinforces the reading beyond the story world. Accordingly, the narrative depicts a miniature of a society where suppression, greed and superstitioFn can be detrimental.  

Keywords

References

Bakhtin, Mikhail (1965). Rabelais and His World. Trans. Iswolsky, Hélène. Indiana UP.
Barasch, Frances K (1971). The Grotesque: A Study in Meanings. The Mouton.
Chao, Shun-Liang (2011). Rethinking the Concept of the Grotesque: Crashaw, Baudelaire, Magritte. Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing.
Clark, John R (1991). The Modern Satiric Grotesque. The University Press of Kentucky.
Connelly, Frances S (2003). “Introduction.” In Connelly, Frances S. (Ed.), Modern Art and the Grotesque (pps.1-19). Cambridge UP.
Harpham, Geoffrey Galt (1982). On the Grotesque. Princeton UP.
Kamshad, Hasan (1966). Modern Persian Prose Literature. Cambridge UP.
Kristeva, Julia (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Trans. Roudiez, Leon. Columbia UP.
Jackson, Rosemary (1981). Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. Methuen & Co. Ltd.
Kayser, Wolfgang (1963). The Grotesque in Art and Literature. Trans. Weisstein, Ulrich. Indiana UP.
Kubichkova, Vera (1968). “Persian Literature of the 20th Century.” In Rypka, Jan (Ed.), History of Iranian Literature (pps.352-354). Dr. Reidel Publishing Company.
Kuryluk, Ewa (1987). Salome and Judas in the Cave of Sex. Northwestern UP.
McElroy, Bernard (1989). Fiction of the Modern Grotesque. The Macmillan Press Ltd.
Mirabedini, Hasan (2011). “Beh’Āzin”. Encyclopedia Iranica. Ed. Yarshater, Ehsan. Columbia University Center for Iranian Studies, 1996-. <http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/behazin>.
Moayyad, Heshmat (1992). “Introduction.” In Moayyad, Heshmat (Ed.), Stories from Iran: A Chicago Anthology 1921-1991(pp. 13-30). Mage Publishers.
Osterfeld Li, Michelle (2009). Ambiguous Bodies: Reading the Grotesque in Japanese Setsuwa Tales. Stanford UP.
Ruskin, John (1875). “Grotesque Renaissance.” In The Stones of Venice (pp.112-65). Vol. III. Thomas and Cromell & Co.
Symonds, John Addington (1907). “Caricature, the Fantastic, the Grotesque.” In Essays Speculative and Suggestive (3rd. Ed. pp. 155-65). Smith, Elder, & Company.
Thomson, Philip (1972). The Grotesque. Routledge.
Todorov, Tzvetan (1973). The Fantastic. Trans. Howard, Richard. The Press of Case Western Reserve University.
Yarshater, Ehsan (1984). “The Modern Literary Idiom.” In Ricks, M. Thomas (Ed.), Critical Perspective on Modern Persian Literature (pp. 42-62). Three Continents Press.
Zavarzadeh, Mas'ud (1984). “The Persian Short Story since the Second World War: An Overview.” In Ricks, M. Thomas (Ed.), Critical Perspective on Modern Persian Literature (pp.147-155). Three Continents Press.
The Journal Of Linguistic and Rhetorical Studies
Volume 15, Issue 36
July 2024
Pages 275-298

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics