Analysis of Narrative Time and Focalization in the Gheseh-e- Gharib-e- Safar-e- Shad-e… by Abbas Nalbandian based on Gérard Genette’s Theory

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of English Literature Tarbiat Modares University

2 Department of Theatre University of Tehran

3 Department of Dramatic Literature Tarbiat Modares University

10.30480/dam.2022.2907.1573

Abstract

Abbas Nalbandian, a modernist, surpassed the classical dramatic features in his plays by providing distinct form and structure, empowered the experimental writing in Iranian drama. Nalbandian wrote his play Gheseh-e- Gharib-e- Safar-e- Shad… (1973) in his mid-career and in which he utilized distinct and prominent narrative features (including but not limited to combined/multiple points of view and flexibility of time and location). In this research, despite of situating Nalbandian’s works in a chained sequence, we examine the experimental aspects of his themes and narrative style in the aforementioned play. By drawing from Gérard Genette’s theory of narrative, we explore the narrative time and focalization features in this text, and we depict how Nalbandian put the subject of death at the core of the play for the sake of dramatic expression of the temporal and narrative structure. Nalbandian in Gheseh-e- Gharib-e- Safar-e- Shad… develops his narrative from a focused point with the bases in characters and goes beyond it to a point where dramatic features with multiple narratives are set. In this process, each feature as a vehicle for focalization has a role to convey a part of the narrative and without emphasizing a sole character, each individual as a part of a whole plays his role in the development of a central situation as a human’s confrontation with death. In this dramatic technique, because of the exertion of various idiosyncrasies by focalizing features, the issue of death will be explored from different angles and leads to polyphony in the play which is a modern characteristic of literature.

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Volume 12, Issue 26
June 2022
Pages 23-35

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