- Count View : 48
- آدرس کوتاه شده مقاله: https://bahareadab.com/article_id/2028
- کد IranDOI مقاله: IranDOI :10.irandoi.2002/bahareadab.2026 .19 .8245
volume Number : 19
number In Volume : 4
issue Number : 122
Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 19،
number In Volume 4،
،
issue Number 122
A Linguistic-Stylistic Analysis of the Concept of Kherad in Three Tales from Marzban-Nameh: A New Historicist Approach
Zeynab Khosravi (Author in Charge)
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Marzban-Nameh is one of the most significant examples of Persian ornate and didactic prose, in which narrative, ethics, politics, social experience, and linguistic techniques are closely intertwined. The concept of kherad, or wisdom, also occupies a central position in the Persian didactic tradition. In Marzban-Nameh, however, kherad does not appear merely as a direct moral lesson or an abstract idea; rather, it is formed through narrative language, speech situations, verbal acts, and social judgments. This study aims to examine how kherad is constructed and represented through linguistic-stylistic elements in three tales: “Hanbūy with Zahhāk,” “The Wise Thief,” and “The Silk Merchant’s Wife and the Shoemaker.”
METHODOLOGY: This research is a theoretical and text-based study conducted through a descriptive-analytical method and close reading. The corpus consists of the three selected tales from Marzban-Nameh, edited by Khalil Khatib-Rahbar. The analysis focuses on words, syntactic structures, modal and obligatory propositions, forms of address, negations, imperatives, speech acts, and the narrator’s judgments. These elements are interpreted through linguistic stylistics and a New Historicist approach.
FINDINGS: In the tale of Hanbūy with Zahhāk, kherad is shaped through the contrast between possibility and impossibility, the language of petitioning, and a difficult choice made in the face of power. In “The Wise Thief,” address and negation, especially the speech of the accused woman, create the conditions for shame, moral recognition, and the thief’s awareness of his wrongdoing. In “The Silk Merchant’s Wife and the Shoemaker,” words related to seeing, speaking, fear, concealment, and public reputation reveal the relation between wisdom and folly within the context of surveillance and social disgrace.
CONCLUSION: The findings show that kherad in Marzban-Nameh is not a fixed concept outside the narrative; it emerges through the language of the tale and in relation to power, shame, petitioning, surveillance, and social judgment. Therefore, language in these tales does more than convey moral instruction; it actively constructs ethical understanding, character positions, and social relations.
Keyword
Marzban-Nameh
, kherad
, linguistic stylistics
, didactic prose
, New Historicism
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