A Romantic-Mystic Reading of Salāmān va Absāl and Mem and Zin: A Narratological Analysis of Persian and Kurdish Literature

Although Salāmān va Absāl and Mem and Zin are classified as romantic poems, their narrative structure deviates from the conventions of romantic poetry. Informed by the sequence and meaning of events, one can fairly argue that these two works are not conventionally romantic. The fate of the protagonists, as well as their transcended worldview, signify the mystical nature of the narrative. Informed by the discursive-ideologic subject, this narratological study aims to investigate the development of romantic-mystic narratives. The results of this study show that the presence of romantic-mystic narratives necessitates transcendence from earthly love to divine love. The representations of such discursive change are change in subjectification, change of the beloved, event coding, and the formation of different semantic and signification levels. These characteristics are the points of departure from conventional romantic poems. 
 
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Categorised as epic, mystic, and romantic, Persian and Kurdish narrative poetry reflects a specific historical background and structure. Mystic and romantic poems used to be two different waves of poetry, but they fused with one another and produced a hybrid style of poetry known as romantic-mystic poetry. There are numerous examples of romantic-mystic poetry in Persian and Kurdish literatures, all of which follow the same structure and narrative construction. Informed by the semantic and typologic development of the concept of love and its representations, the present study investigates romantic-mystic narratives in Salāmān va Absāl and Mem and Zin as similar poems in  Persian and Kurdish literature.
2. Methodology
Informed by the discursive-ideologic subject, this descriptive-analytic study adopts a narratological approach to investigate the development of romantic-mystic narratives.
3. Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework of this study entails the narrative function system, the narrative-discourse correlation, and intertextuality in narration, all of which function separately and collectively to create the essence of a narrative. In this regard, the positioning and meaning of every element can have an impact on the analysis of the whole narrative. In addition, from an ideological perspective, one can argue that worldviews and contradicting ideologies in a specific historical context directly affect the narrative. Every ideology necessitates a unified narrative to be represented in the socio-cultural context; in other words, a narrative is created in accordance with a certain ideological foundation. In this sense, the narrative becomes the superstructure, and the representation becomes the substructure. Regarding intertextuality, one can argue that previous narratives dialectically affect the creation of new narratives; put differently, there is no narratological analysis without intertextuality.
4. Discussion and Analysis
By investigating the historical and temporal context, one can argue that the creation of romantic-mystic narratives was never a coincidence. Since romantic poems revolve around love and the fate of lovers, their ideological context is in accordance with the dominant ideology and worldview of the masses, which, in turn, transcends the narratives of the era. The dominant discourse of the romantic-mystic narratives is in accordance with the mystic discourse on human and divine love. In this regard, representation moves beyond the conventional metaphoric love toward real and true love. The characteristics of this interconnected system of signification and representation are as follows:
Discursive Change: at some point in narration, a new semantic and ideological context dominates the narrative, which is different from the initial context.
Different Semantic Levels: the discursive change paves the way for the emergence of different semantic levels. The presence of new semantic levels for the events and characters mystifies the text.
Change in Subjectification: the point of departure in conventional romantic poems and romantic-mystic poems is the change in subjectification. In romantic-mystic poems, both the lover and the beloved go through mystical and ideological changes, which, in turn, alters their subjectification.
Change of the Beloved: the essential change of the beloved is another characteristic of romantic-mystic poetry.
Mystic Coding of the Events: informed by the worldview and ideology of the mystics, the events of the narrative are coded with representations of mystical intertexts and contexts.
5. Conclusion
The results of this study show that romantic-mystic poetry originated from conventional romantic poetry, and then amalgamated with mystical concepts to create a new hybrid form of romantic poetry, called “romantic-mystic” poetry. These narratives are more complex than their conventional counterparts. Informed by society's transcendence, they represent the move beyond the conventional metaphoric love toward real and true love.
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