A Comparative Reading of Bakhtinian Polyphonic Effects in Drama of “Safar-e Dour…”(Mohammad Charmshir) and Novel of “Asfar-e-Kateban ”(Aboutorab Khosravi)

Drawing upon some teachings of modern literary criticism and Michail Bakhtin’s notion of polyphony, the article tries to compare selected Iranian contemporary literary and dramatic texts. Polyphony, as the potential capacity of a text to produce and reproduce meaning, gives the reader the chance of analyzing the dialogical and narrative patterns of Iranian novels and dramas in a new perception. Today intertextual approach eliminates the borders between written and non-written texts (film, play, and painting) and interweaves the arts. Influenced by social polyphony the Iranian society encounters today, some Iranian authors have tried to experience polyphony and plurality in their fictions and dramas. The article selects the novel of “ Asfar-e Kateban” by Aboutorab Khosravi and “ Safare Dour va Deraz-e Sultan ” by Mohammad Charmshir as its cases of study. In a descriptive-analytic approach to these cases of study, the article tries to examine how Bakhtinian intertextuality helps to analyze novels and dramas in the Iranian literature. The research is aimed to answer the question “how the Iranian authors have created polyphony and plurality in their texts and what effects they have used. Providing an overview of the history of intertexual approach to literary criticism, this study introduces and categorizes some of the most important polyphonic effects in these texts. Reliable analytic devices in intertextual reading such as “parody, heteroglossia, metalanguage, metadrama in fiction and drama, multi-narration and join of literary - historical personalities” pave the way for comparative analysis of these cases of study and help to prove the theory of the article. These effects effectively increase the reading capacities of the two cases. Finally, this study discusses that theoretically, some of the literary and dramatic works of the late two decades in Iran are readable in modern criticism and ignoring some methodological points, are capable to be analyzed based on contemporary narration. So it can be said that polyphony gives the Iranian authors more opportunities to reach various phones in their works. The comparative analysis of the novel of “Asfar-e Kateban” and the drama of “Safar-e Dour va Deraz-e Sultan” proves that intertextual effects are used in both works. It shows because of the similarities between literary and dramatic languages, polyphonic effects are not only readable in fiction but also in dramatic texts. On the other hand, more analysis also reveals that “Asfar-e Kateban” (by Khosravi) refers simultaneously to several books and stories in its narrative pattern. In the drama of Dastan-e Dour va Deraz-e Sultan (by Charmshir) some references to the Iranian prominent cultural works (Hossein Kord Shabestary, Amir Arsaln-e Namdar), Iranian old literature ( Shahname by Ferdowsi) and distinguished contemporary plays ( Hamlet and Othello) are seen. The analysis of literary and dramatic linguistic styles of the cases shows some of the most important polyphonic effects are used in these texts. The interaction of dramatic and literary languages in these works considerably helps to promote them to metafiction and metadrama. The research shows the cases of study are readable with respect to intertextual and polyphonic effects.