Investigating the Narrative System of the Stories of Twelve-Grade Persian Books Based on Nikolayeva's Point of View
Subject Areas : Literary Criticism and Theory
Fateme Jafari kamangar
1
*
,
Seyed Mohadese Hashemi
2
1 - Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature Education, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran
2 - MA, Department of Persian Language and Literature Education, Farhangian University; Mazandaran Province Department of Education, Babol, Iran.
Keywords: Narrative system, story, Persian book, Nikolayeva's point of view,
Abstract :
Investigating the Narrative System of the Stories
of Twelve-Grade Persian Books Based
on Nikolayeva's Point of View
Fatemeh Jafari Kamangar*
Seyyedeh Mohaddeseh Hashemi**
Literary critics have diverse perspectives on the context of children's and adolescent literature, and Maria Nikolayeva, also a prominent critic in this field, has considered various components of the stories in the three periods of pre-lapsarian (primary), carnivalesque (first secondary), and post-lapsarian (second secondary). The objective of this research is to investigate the extent of adaptation of the narrative discipline of the stories in the 12-grade school’s Persian books based on Nikolayeva's theory. The statistical population includes all of the 12-grade Persian books, and the stories of those books are considered a statistical sample. In this research, content analysis was used in both quantitative and qualitative ways with the analogical coding method. The unit of this research is the story. In order to achieve reliability, a number of stories were coded by two coders, and validity was performed with the pluralistic method and the researcher's long-term engagement with the research environment. For statistical analysis, SPSS, Excel, online analysis tests, and G-Test were used. The results of this research proved that the narrative discipline of the stories in the 12-grade Persian books did not have the necessary compatibility with the components proposed by Nikolayeva's point of view. Among the three stages of school, the stories in the Persian books of the elementary school had the most adaptation, and the stories in the Persian books of the first and second high school, respectively, had the least adaptation with the components of Nikolayeva's view.
Keywords: Narrative system, story, Persian book, Nikolayeva's point of view.
Introduction
Among the various genres of language and literature, stories and narrative literature occupy a distinctive and significant position, particularly within the field of children's and young adult literature. Narrative literature constitutes a major branch of literary studies, encompassing all forms of fictional and imaginative storytelling. Stories provide children with opportunities to interpret and express their unconscious desires, emotions, and inner experiences while simultaneously helping them understand the world around them. This function aligns closely with the fundamental objectives of modern education, which emphasize holistic cognitive, emotional, and social development. Unlike the rigid, formal, and often artificial language commonly found in school textbooks, stories present knowledge in a natural, engaging, and accessible manner. Consequently, they facilitate children's comprehension, stimulate their imagination, foster critical thinking and creativity, and promote meaningful, long-lasting learning experiences. In general, the proper and accurate selection of a story has a greater influence on a child’s behavior than other educational tools. Narrativity is considered the most fundamental characteristic of any narrative text. A story is the narration of a series of events by a narrator, arranged according to causal relationships and the logic of the story, and recounted with a clear beginning and end. A portion of these narratives is intended for children and is therefore classified as children’s literature. Children's literature encompasses literary works specifically produced for a distinct audience of young readers. Such texts embody both aesthetic and pedagogical dimensions, aiming not only to provide literary enjoyment but also to foster children's awareness of life, society, and human values while contributing to their cognitive, emotional, and moral development. As an integral component of both formal and informal education, children's and young adult literature occupies a significant place within educational systems and constitutes a substantial proportion of Persian language textbooks and instructional materials. Listening to and reading instructional texts constitute meaningful cognitive processes only when they are accompanied by reflection and active engagement on the part of learners. Such internal learning occurs when the instructional material is appropriately aligned with learners' developmental characteristics, cognitive needs, and prior knowledge, thereby facilitating a meaningful interaction between the learner and the text. Consequently, textbooks are systematically designed and organized in accordance with educational objectives, curricular content, and the characteristics of their intended audience. Within centralized educational systems, in particular, textbook content plays a pivotal role in the realization of educational goals and curriculum objectives. For this reason, the systematic analysis and evaluation of textbook content are of critical importance for curriculum planning, textbook development, educational policy reform, and the continuous revision and modernization of the educational system. By examining the structure, meaning, and artistic qualities of literary works, literary criticism seeks to provide a deeper and more systematic interpretation of literary texts. Among the major approaches to literary criticism, Structuralism occupies a prominent position, focusing on the underlying structure of narratives, the constituent elements of a literary work, and the relationships among these elements. Structuralism is fundamentally grounded in the concept of narrative, maintaining that a literary text is amenable to structural analysis insofar as it possesses narrativity. From a structuralist perspective, narratology is concerned with the systematic study of the form, structure, and functions of narrative, with the ultimate aim of explaining how narratives generate meaning and how readers interpret and understand narrative texts. According to Ferdinand de Saussure's linguistic theory, meaning is determined by structure, and language is conceived as a system of arbitrary signs devoid of any inherent or fixed essence. Saussure argues that form consists of the network of relationships and oppositions governing language. Although individual sentences and utterances differ from one another, they all operate within a single underlying system and are generated according to shared principles and rules. This underlying system is what is referred to as structure. From the perspective of structuralist criticism, the critic is not primarily concerned with determining how a literary work expresses the author's inner emotions or reflects an external reality. Rather, the principal objective is to explain how the formal structures and literary devices of the text function to produce meaning. Structuralism differs fundamentally from traditional approaches to literary criticism in that it regards the literary work as an autonomous and objective structure whose system of signs and conventions exists independently of the author, the reader, and external reality. Within the structuralist tradition, one of the leading narratologists and prominent scholars of children's and young adult literature is Maria Nikolajeva. In her theoretical framework, the developmental journey from childhood to adulthood is divided into three distinct phases: the prelapsarian, carnivalesque, and postlapsarian stages. For each of these developmental stages, Nikolajeva identifies a distinct set of literary characteristics corresponding to the cognitive and interpretive abilities of the intended readership. According to her, narratives belonging to the prelapsarian stage, which generally correspond to the primary school years, exhibit a number of defining features. These include a well-defined plot with a clear beginning, middle, and end; a limited cast of characters; a chronological sequence of events; a setting that is spatially isolated from the rest of the world; an emphasis on the home particularly the rural home as a secure and meaningful space; the absence of negative or disturbing elements; the exclusion of themes such as death and sexuality; the systematic repetition of events throughout the narrative; the presence of a collective rather than an individual hero; an omniscient narrator; and a happy ending, among other characteristics. Narratives belonging to the carnivalesque stage, which corresponds broadly to the lower secondary school years, are characterized by a distinctive set of structural and thematic features. These include a circular–linear–circular temporal pattern; the interplay between the real world and the dream or fantasy world; a collective protagonist who, through magical means or the power of imagination, journeys to a supernatural or mythical realm before ultimately returning to reality; reversible death; movement across temporal boundaries; a happy ending; and the protagonists' moral and psychological transformation toward adulthood. In addition, these narratives are typically presented through a first-person narrator and incorporate implicit romantic allusions while excluding explicit representations of sexuality, among other defining characteristics. Narratives belonging to the postlapsarian stage, which broadly corresponds to the upper secondary school years, are distinguished by a considerably greater degree of structural and thematic complexity. Their defining characteristics include the avoidance of repeated events; multiple or open-ended conclusions; polyphony (multiple narrative voices); an unreliable narrator; intersubjectivity; open settings, predominantly urban environments; an individual rather than a collective protagonist; an awareness of the inevitability and finality of death; the presence of disorder and chaos; the exploration of social, ethical, political, and sexual issues; disruption of chronological order through complex temporal structures; and the frequent use of recursive and embedded flashbacks, among other narrative features. Attention to each of these components in stories designed for different age groups can, in addition to defamiliarizing the repetitive structures of conventional narratives and implicitly familiarizing students with diverse narrative styles, enrich their reading experiences and enhance their understanding of educational, cognitive, and psychological issues. The present study employed a qualitative research approach to analyze the stories included in the Persian language textbooks of all twelve grades based on Nikolajeva's theoretical framework. Following a comparative analysis, the characteristics of the stories across the twelve grade levels were matched against Nikolajeva's proposed criteria for different age groups, and the degree of correspondence was determined.
Research Methodology
Subsequently, the qualitative findings were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS, while another set of data, involving functional modeling, was analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The comparison of proportions between independent groups was conducted using an online statistical analysis tool. Descriptive statistics were reported as percentages, while inferential analyses comparing grade levels and educational stages were performed using the G-test.
Conclusion
The findings revealed that the stories included in the primary school Persian textbooks corresponded to 71% of Nikolajeva's proposed narrative characteristics. Among these, the least frequently observed features were open endings (16.7%) and defamiliarization through characterization (18.8%), whereas the most frequently observed feature was the limited number of characters, which demonstrated 100% correspondence. The stories in the lower secondary school textbooks showed only 37% correspondence with Nikolajeva's framework, representing less than half of the expected characteristics. The least frequently identified features were reversible death and implicit romantic references without sexual content, both occurring at 0%, while the most prevalent feature was the happy ending, with a correspondence rate of 91.7%. The stories in the upper secondary school Persian textbooks demonstrated a 43.1% correspondence with Nikolajeva's criteria, which was also below the halfway point. The lowest level of correspondence was found for polyphony (multiple narrative voices), with 0%, whereas the highest level of correspondence was observed for the feature addressing social, moral, political, and sexual issues, with 94.7%. Educational stages primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary demonstrated an overall 50.36% correspondence with Nikolajeva's theoretical framework. In other words, only about half of Nikolajeva's proposed narrative characteristics were reflected in the stories contained in the Persian textbooks across all twelve grade levels. Among the three educational stages, the primary school textbooks exhibited the highest level of correspondence, at 71%, whereas the lower secondary and upper secondary textbooks showed considerably lower levels of correspondence, at 37% and 43.1%, respectively. The latter two stages differed only slightly from one another and represented the lowest degree of alignment with Nikolajeva's framework. The findings of the analysis of the Persian language textbooks indicate that the textbook authors did not select stories in accordance with students' cognitive and intellectual development. Instead, the basic narrative structure that is appropriate for primary school students has largely been retained throughout the subsequent educational stages. Although the selection of stories is influenced by numerous educational and ideological criteria, such considerations do not justify neglecting literary structures and narrative development. Stories intended for older age groups should not merely aim to convey moral or educational messages more seriously; rather, by incorporating age-appropriate narrative structures and employing techniques of defamiliarization in plot and storytelling, they should challenge readers' thinking, broaden their interpretive abilities, and prevent them from becoming confined to conventional literary patterns. Such narratives foster deeper engagement with literature while promoting higher-order cognitive and aesthetic appreciation. Given the central role of school textbooks in Iran's educational system, they occupy a particularly significant position. Consequently, beyond their explicit instructional objectives, textbooks are expected to incorporate beneficial implicit content that contributes to the development of students' cognitive, interpretive, and critical thinking skills. The repeated use of similar narrative structures not only diminishes their educational effectiveness but also weakens their aesthetic value, ultimately reducing students' interest and engagement with literary texts. Accordingly, the findings underscore the need for a comprehensive revision of the stories included in the Persian language textbooks across all twelve grade levels, with particular emphasis on the lower secondary and upper secondary stages, where the mismatch between narrative characteristics and students' developmental needs is most evident.
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* Corresponding Author: Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature Education, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran,
f.jafari@cfu.ac.ir
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0719-1415
** MA, Department of Persian Language and Literature Education, Farhangian University; Mazandaran Province Department of Education, Babol, Iran.
seyedmohadesehashemi@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7739-5296
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