Analyzing Narrative Structure of “The Tale of Afshin and Boudolaf” from Bayhaqi's "History" Based on Gérard Genette’s Theory

Abstract

Analyzing the constituent elements of a narrative and representation of its governing rules help us in better understanding of mechanisms and relationships within the narrative elements. Since narratology is one of the main branches of structuralism, analyzing narrative structure of past texts and their evolution can be lead to valuable results and open new and different perspectives to audiences.Bayhaqi’s History is one of the basic texts in Persian prose. This research analyzes narrative structure of “The Tale of Afshin and Boudlof” from Bayhaqi's "History" based on the ideas of French structuralist, Gérard Genette. The narrative levels of this work has been studied in interaction with the components of duration, mood, and voice) to uncover its specific narrative structure and Bayhaqi’s writing power in taking advantage of the possibilities of language and literary. Unlike believers in the idea that past proses of Persian literature just stories and narrations and they lack ordered structure and strong plot, this research shows the ordered structure and strong plot of the studied case according to ideas of Gérard Genette.