ولی غلامی

In the recent years, literary historians and critics have begun to reevaluate the role of oil in politics, society and literature. Oil as a valuable material has dominated many aspects of people’s life especially those who live in oil rich areas. In fact, oil, as an inextricably linked social issue rather than a mere source of energy, has become the identity of people and has dominated their hidden desires. The present study tried to find out the impact of oil both as a material wealth and value form on two novels namely Upton Sinclair’s Oil! and Ahmad Mahmoud’s The Neighbors. In analyzing these novels due to the eligibility of them to be placed in the Petrofiction category, Amitav Ghosh's framework was utilized. Based on Ghosh, fiction has a gap named oil conflict, which he called petrofiction in his 1992 article. The results of the analyses revealed that oil as a material wealth and value form affects politics of a society and this in turn impacts the lives of the characters in both novels. The dual forms of oil create a set of relations among the characters who undergo a social change. This thesis examines the intellectual growth of the main characters in two novels as they undergo social change, leading them to adopt strong socialist ideologies in response to the cruelties of a capitalist society. Through a close textual analysis, the study argues that the characters' experiences prompt a reevaluation of their beliefs, resulting in a transformative intellectual journey. Drawing on socialist ideology and political philosophy, the thesis shows how the characters develop a critical consciousness and reject the dominant socioeconomic order.

The present thesis attempts to study Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and The Blind Assassin in terms of their mythological intertexts and aims to demonstrate that Atwood's objective for using these myths is to illustrate the state of contemporary woman. In these novels, Atwood has referred to various patriarchal myths such as the myth of Philomela and the myth of the Sirens and mythological archetypes such as the Great Mother. The main issue is to investigate Atwood’s objective of referring to these myths and to clarify in what manners she uses these myths to accomplish her objective which is depicting the state of the contemporary woman. Through the powerful tool of mythology, Atwood attempts to demonstrate that women’s position in our time is highly similar to these ancient myths and that even after several centuries, they still bear great resemblance to our contemporary world. Nonetheless, we must consider that there are several other myths that Atwood refers to which are not mentioned because of the subject of the thesis. One of Atwood’s most significant messages in these novels, is that these myths are a tool through which we are able to better observe our contemporary world and as a result, have a more obvious perception of it. In examining these novels, the theories of Erich Neumann who was a prominent Jungian psychiatrist and mythologist who studied the Jungian archetype of the Great Mother in his book entitled The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype (1955) and furthermore, the theories of Helen Cixous in his significant work entitled The Laugh of the Medusa (1975), have been used. Thus, in the first step, the two novels are examined according to the theories of Neumann and Cixous, and in the next step, the resemblance that these myths bear to the state of women in the contemporary world is discussed. Thus, it is suggested that through these mythological intertexts, Atwood attempts to depict the identity and position of women in the contemporary world and additionally, the manners in which Atwood has used the language of mythology to represent the incongruities in our contemporary world, specifically that of women.

The present study seeks to pursue the philosophy of active nihilism in Seamus Heaney’s collections of poetry. The main items of active nihilism, which will be explored in the collections, are empty space, nothingness, ontological nihilism, nihilistic phenomenology, religious nihilism, and the historical consideration of nihilism. The investigated collections are Seeing Things (1991), The Spirit Level (1996), Electric Light (2001), District and Circle (2006) and Human Chain (2010). Active nihilism, by accepting no meanings and values as predetermined principles, strives to discover innovative connotations in previous origins and sources. Selected collections of Heaney in this thesis convey examples of absences that will present the fertile presences. Active nihilism, in opposition to radical traditional nihilism, struggles to open possible paths and potentialities for religions to exist safely. In this sort of nihilism, life is, correspondingly, out of imposed meanings, as well as filled with effective individual values. Nothingness, as an item of active nihilism, in Heaney’s poetry, creates meaningful spaces to obtain new meanings. History, one of the critical elements, breeds personal interpretations based upon particular generations. Phenomenology aids active nihilism to specialize every cultural or religious code to a specific phenomenon. Thus, no determined or infallible constitution of belief and credence may be existent. Seamus Heaney, by passing national and religious predispositions, in the last years of his life, cross the threshold of universality of active nihilism.

The present research aims to keenly investigate the treatment of deformity in the novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and the memoir Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss. Narrated by Calliope (Cal) Stephanides the protagonist, the novel Middlesex depicts the lives of Three generations of Stephanides family. Cal, born as a female (Calliope), is a 5-alfa-reductase hermaphrodite identifying as a male whose condition stems from the marriage of his grandparents who were siblings. 5-alfa-reductase deficiency is a condition which prevents male sexual organs to develop well before birth and during puberty; people with this deficiency are genetically male with one Y and one X chromosome in each cell. Because of not producing enough DHT hormone which has crucial role for male sexual development, the formation of external organs disrupts. Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter is an autobiographical work by Barbara Robinette Moss. Growing up in a poor rural family in Alabama with a charismatic and alcoholic father led to facial deformity of Barbara which was the result of malnutrition, loose of medical and dental care. This research seeks to study the representation of deformity in the selected works and by defining social and cultural meaning of deformity and illustrating different disability theory critics’ viewpoints, analyze the social and cultural obstacles that affect deformed people’s life.

The present research aims at exploring identity construction in two novels by Doris Lessing, a British contemporary novelist, in the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis. With this in mind, the research data concern two novels by Lessing, namely, Fifth Child (1988) and Ben, In the World (2000). Fifth Child narrates the story of Harriet and David and their fifth child, Ben Lovatt, who seems to be unable to adjust himself to the conventions of civil life. The sequel to this novel, Ben, In the World, portrays the rough life of Ben, now an eighteen-year old boy, who is betrayed by almost every one. Due to the events happing to him, he departs to different destinations, the last one being Andes mountains, a place more appropriate to his life. The events of these two novels render Ben, as an apt case to be scrutinized through psychoanalytical theories conceptualized by Jacques Lacan. The research seeks to demonstrate how Ben Lovatt's subjectivity gets fragmented, preventing him from confronting his complexes, problems and obsessions, thus playing a constructive role within the world of the symbolic order.

This dissertation seeks to explore the narrative specialties of The Narrow Road to the Deep North by, the Australian author, Richard Flanagan for which he won the 2014 Man Booker prize. The novel is beyond an allusion to Basho's significant classical work written in the 17th century Japan. Basho's work is a haibun in the Japanese tradition which is a combination of verse, haikus, and prose. Basho's The Narrow road to the Deep North is a travel narrative that acts like a model for Flanagan to provide him with the chance of an artistic imitation of Basho's style. The pilgrimage-like journey of Basho becomes the personal life story of Dorrigo Evans who experiences a narrative of love and war in the 20th century. These opposing lines of narrative move forward in parallel, since the haikus intervening the narrative, set the scene for the events that they are not originally written for; still they are open to be placed in. The focalizers are different characters who are the perceivers of the incidents going on in the novel. These focalizers provide the opportunity of delivering an objective representation of the lines of the events by explicating various dimensions that help the reader have a holistic realization of the entire narrative. Along with the focalizers and the haikus, the road acts like the third element that aids the encounter of different people from different ethnic backgrounds. The dialogism is the occasion which strengthens the polyphonic nature of the novel. All these attempts in delivering an objective representation are to have the chance of the intrusion provided for the author.