Methodology of Mythological Criticism: The Case of “Afarin-e Siāvash”

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Abstract

Siāvash is one of the controversial figures in Persian literature and mythology whose story has been the theme of a great number of research articles. In a recently published book entitled “Afarin-e Siāvash”, Khojasteh Kiā has proposed a challenging point of view about this character which is needed to be pinpointed to see how much the outlook adopted in the book is justified. The present article does its best to find out whether the book of Khojasteh Kiā follows a scientific mythological method, and thus comes to the conclusion that the outlook is based on surface structural attitudes and analogies which by nature can never end in a deep structural and thorough understanding of the text.

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