Studying the “Narrative” in Hossein Kord Shabestari

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Abstract

Hossein Kord Shabestari is a well known popular story of late Safavid period whose writer is unknown. Its subject matter is the exercise of the bodily strength by Iranian Shiite champions against their enemies. This article through studying the narrative characteristics of this story shows that its external omniscient point of view possesses many features of Iranian oral storytelling. The focalization is essentially on actions and events and thus dialog and description is not frequent in the story; meanwhile the narrator is sympathetic towards protagonist and takes position against the antagonists, and at times, following the procedure of old narrators, either intervenes the text or uses some similar techniques.

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