Comparative Morphology of MahPishani, Yeh-Shen and Cinderella Tales
Subject Areas : Research in Iranian classical literature
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(Asssociate Professor of Persian Language and Literature Department of Payam-e Noor University Mortezaheydari.58@gmail.com )
Keywords: Tale Morphology Propp MahPishani Yeh-Shen Cindrella,
Abstract :
Comparative studies in folk literature and children’s literature can pave the way for the growth of human lofty thoughts through explaining the ideological and cultural similarities among the people of the world. In this research, using Propp’s morphology theory, the author explains and analyzes the structure of an Iranian tale “MahPishani”, a Chinese one “Yeh-Shen”, and “Cinderella” as a Western tale. Since the tales studied in this research are from the fairy tale category, it is quite consistent with the Prop’s morphology model which is the result of Russian fairy tales analysis. After matching the structural similarities of the three tales, the author proposes a proto structure (mother structure) which is derived from the common functions of the three tales upon which their plots are based. In order to find out which tale is the most ancient one, a meta- structural analysis was inevitable. The analysis reveals that the very well-known archetype in MahPishani goes back to Paleolithic Age (Hunting Age). Eventually, the author deduced that the structural changes in these three tales follow a descending pattern, i.e. “Mahpishani” is the oldest narration, and over time, the diversity of characters and the number of functions have been decreased to the extent that the morphological diagram of Cindrella tale is the same as the mother diagram derived from the comparison of these three tales.