Naser Maleki

  Thisstudy aims to explore the use of postmodern ekphrasis through intermediality in creating a dynamic narrative for representing the mind of the postmodern subject in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. Using pastiche and collage, drawn from painting, to blend styles and genres to exhibit the complexity of the postmodern world, on the one hand, and employing specific postmodern narrative techniques with visual elements to create multi-layered narratives, on the other hand, are the main concerns in Danielewski’s postmodernist fiction. Abstract    This study aims to explore the use of postmodern ekphrasis through intermediality in creating a dynamic narrative for representing the mind of the postmodern subject in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. Using pastiche and collage, drawn from painting, to blend styles and genres to exhibit the complexity of the postmodern world, on the one hand, and employing specific postmodern narrative techniques with visual elements to create multi-layered narratives, on the other hand, are the main concerns in Danielewski’s postmodernist fiction. In this regard, Danielewski has employed such postmodern narrative techniques as metafiction, paratextuality, hypertextuality, intertextuality, experimental typography, and ergodic writing to demand active reader engagement. These techniques, connected to contemporary ekphrasis, bridge language forms and visual forms to challenge traditional conventions by embodying postmodern fragmentation. In this sense, in light of William J. T. Mitchell’s theory, ekphrasis is not merely a verbal representation of visual art; it functions more dynamically and more engagingly as it mingles words and images to interact. On this point, House of Leaves demonstrates a visual version of postmodern fragmentation and the fragile nature of truth by employing intermediality to create a multi-layered narrative to engage readers in a fragmented, chaotic experience, mirroring the traumatized and disturbed state of mind of the postmodern subject. Considering ekphrasis within a postmodern framework, House of Leaves remarkably reveals how postmodern narrative techniques blend words and images, leading to a dynamic interplay and active participation of readers to comprehend the complexity of the narrative truth. Keywords: Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves, Ekphrasis, Postmodernism, intermediality

   This thesis explores Black women’s identity crisis in predominantly white societies in Toni Morrison’s God help the Child. Under Critical Race Theory (CRT), and drawing on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of “intersectionality,” that helps with understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality merge to give rise to systemic racism, this study highlights how race and gender intersect to create unique forms of oppression against Black women in Morrison’s challenging novel. So far as the legacy of slavery, colonialism, and systemic racism continue to impact Black women on all social, political, cultural and psychological grounds, their imposed invisibility and marginalization due to under-representation is fundamentally rooted in Frantz Fanon’s arguments in Black Skin, White Masks, which examines the psychological effects of colonialism and racism on Black people. The internalization of white societal norms and the resulting identity conflicts highlight systemic racism against which the Black struggle to maintain their self-integrity. In this context, Fanon’s theories are applied to present a deeply psychoanalytic reading of the novel, where the protagonist grapples with internalized racism and intergenerational trauma stemming from her Black roots. Morrison underscores the profound psychological scars left by racial discrimination and the consistent attempts made by the Black woman for a sense of the self against “embodied Blackness” which stands for the lived experience of Black individuals in connection with their physical bodies and how they are perceived within societal structures. By integrating CRT and Fanon’s psychoanalytic framework, this paper advocates for a deeper understanding of the structural and personal dimensions of racism, emphasizing the need for societal transformation to address systemic inequities and support the empowerment of marginalized communities.

   One of the main questions of our time is how power structures react during times of crisis and what politics governments choose to manage these situations. This study explores how people can survive in extraordinary conditions when they are stuck between life and death in a post-apocalyptic society without hope. Using Giorgio Agamben’s theoretical framework in State of Exception, this study attempts to explore the concept of thanatopolitics as one of the main themes in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, through new lenses to examine the problem of human survival in dystopian settings. This thesis aims to illustrate the novel’s paradoxical concepts of life and death, how humanity becomes fragile in harsh situations, and how survival turns into “bare life” as governance of death is ruling. In the novel, the father and son’s journey is the portrayal of the Agambian state of exception, where survival is the ultimate goal of people at all costs, even by killing each other and taking others’ belongings because humanity is at its minimum level. The father’s selfishness is reflected in his decisio   he puts their safety above other people’s lives by refusing to help them in challenging conditions as his own survival and his son’s, in particular are his ultimate aim. This study thus follows an interdisciplinary approach to shed a new light on the problem of life and death, as explored by McCarthy in a post-apocalyptic world.

This study uses Michel Foucault’s theories of power to examine how it is negotiated in Madeline Miller’s Circe, concerning the interplay of biopower, female empowerment, and patriarchal dominance. The analysis, building upon Foucault’s ideas in The History of Sexuality and Discipline and Punish, investigates how power forms women’s bodies, identities, and desire  through discipline and violence. In this light, Miller’s narrative pictures how a woman, marginalized in both divine and human society, regains agency by opposing and reusing the very systems that constrain her. Miller’s Circe is a reimagining of a marginal figure from the Homeric myth whose exile is portrayed as a place of metamorphosis. By cultivating her witchcraft, which is a type of embodied knowledge and counter-power against rationality, she empowers herself against patriarchy. In light of Foucault’s biopolitics, the study shows how Circe’s body becomes a site of resistance as well as a target of patriarchal domination. In order to emphasize how female empowerment is inscribed on the female body and how Circe resists patriarchy through self-fashioning, the study also discusses feminist theorists like Judith Butler and Sandra Bartky whose application of Foucault to feminism helps with further analyzing Circe’s motives. Ultimately, the study argues that Circe manifests a Foucauldian understanding of power as relational, simultaneously offering a feminist subjectivity against patriarchal normalization. Circe emerges not only as a figure of myth but as a complex embodiment of resistance, autonomy, and the redefinition of womanhood in a world structured by divine and masculine authority.

This study attempts to analyze Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield in light of Raymond Williams’s social realism and his concept “structure of feeling”. Although social realism emerged as an official literary doctrine in the early 20th century, Dickens shows proto-social realist concerns, especially in his critique of the problems of the labor class in the 19th century and his reflection of the lived experiences of people. When the issues of social realism are traced in literature, the daily struggles of the working-class people are foregrounded concerning their struggles with social and economic problems. By critiquing socio-political structures and legal injustice, social realism calls for social change and reform. Through the representation of the social ills of the nineteenth-century English society and y calling for a series of social reformation, Dickens published David Copperfield to unveil socio-economic problems that affected the everyday lives of people. Therefore, under Raymond Williams’s theory, this thesis attempts to analyze the exploration in David Copperfield of the lived experiences of the time and how Dickens used social criticism to show his protest against the British industrial capitalism. As such, this thesis contributes not only to Dickensian studies but also to discussions on the evolution of social realism.  

This thesis is a critical reading of Paul Auster’s Sunset Park in light of the power politics of Giorgio Agamben’s philosophy, as articulated through such terms as homo sacer, “bare life” and “state of exception”. Auster’s novel is about a few homeless men and women in New York who go through much suffering because of housing issues in the first decade of the 21st century, a problem that highlights governmental policies against the majority of people who cannot afford buying houses. In light of Agamben’s concepts above, using an interdisciplinary approach in philosophy and literature, this study is an attempt to analyze how Auster’s characters in Sunset Park go through a gradual decline in their human status from ordinary citizens to the Agambenian homo sacer, or social outlaws or scapegoats in the context of the novel, whose lives through homele  ess are reduced to the least standards of living, as “bare life” in Agamben’s philosophy, in a society that is run by prejudiced laws. Through an Agambenian reading of the novel, this study will contribute to Auster’s studies considering his socio-political concerns in his realistic novels that address contemporary issues in the United States.   

This work is the culmination of a journey that would not have been possible without the unwavering support, guidance, and i  iration of many remarkable individuals. At its heart, it is a testament to the love, dedication, and wisdom I have been blessed to receive throughout my life. First and foremost, my deepest gratitude goes to my beloved parents, whose sacrifices and unconditional love have been the cornerstone of all my achievements. Their steadfast belief in the transformative power of knowledge and their tireless efforts to prioritize education within our family have shaped the person I am today. They have taught me the value of perseverance, humility, and curiosity, and for that, I am forever indebted. I would also like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Ali Taghizadeh, a man of exceptional diligence and precision. His unwavering commitment to academic excellence, paired with his ability to nurture intellectual growth, has been instrumental in transforming me into the researcher I aspired to become. His guidance, patience, and constructive criticism have left an indelible mark on my journey, and for that, I am profoundly grateful. To my teacher, Dr. Naser Maleki, whose wisdom and passion for teaching i  ired me to think critically and embrace practical solutions—I owe a debt of gratitude for the invaluable lessons imparted. His ability to illuminate complex ideas and challenge us to push the boundaries of conventional thinking has been a source of immense motivation and growth. I am equally grateful to Dr. Mohammad Javad Haj’jari, whose unwavering dedication to his students was nothing short of extraordinary. Whether it was resolving our questions or helping us navigate the challenges of academic life, his support and kindness have been a constant source of comfort and encouragement. To each of these remarkable individuals, I extend my sincerest thanks. Their contributions have not only enriched this work but have also profoundly shaped my personal and intellectual growth. This thesis stands as a reflection of their efforts, guidance, and belief in me.   

  The issue of space has always been a concern for both scholars and philosophers. In this respect, Deleuze, in his collaborative book with Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, delves into this issue, attempting to persuade the contemporary thinkers to rethink old concepts through new lenses and perspectives. Accordingly, in relation to space, they introduce the concepts of “smooth” and “striated” space. Their book, being rhizomatic and interconnected, makes these concepts closely related to one another, as smooth space is depicted as the space of nomadism and rhizome, where nomads traverse and live. Their ideas have captured the interest of a number of contemporary theorists, including Rosi Braidotti, who expands the Deleuzoguattarian nomad into the “nomadic subject” in her studies. This thesis attempts to weave these concepts together, linking them to survival in a post-apocalyptic environment. In view of this, Paul Auster’s In the Country of Last Things, with its post-apocalyptic cityscape, provides a groundwork for applying the Deleuzoguattarian concept of “nomadism.” Such an application seeks to investigate the interconnected relationship between space and identity. To achieve this, a meticulous analysis of the character dynamics and the portrayal of the unstable urban landscape as smooth space is conducted to demonstrate how subjectivity and environment influence one another and how a nomadic subject can secure his/her survival amidst disarray and chaos. This interdisciplinary study creates an opportunity to enrich the use of philosophical concepts in literary interpretation, along with offering readers the chance to think and act nomadically in this ever-changing space we live in.

     هدف از عبادت وارستگي انسان و نيل به مسير سعادت و تكامل است. خلوص نيت و تزكيه و تهذيب نفس در سير عبادات از اهميت ويژه اي برخوردار است. در ميان عبادات نماز، روزه و حج از جايگاه ويژه اي برخوردار هستند. احكام تكليفي زن و مرد در بسياري از عبادتهاي واجب مشابه است. اما در برخي ازعبادتهاي واجب مثل نماز،روزه و حج ،احكام زن ومرد متفاوت است .اين مسئله دليل برتري جنسيتي در اسلام نمي باشد؛ چراكه در دين مبين اسلام   ملاك برتري تقواي الهي مي باشد. با تحقيق و تامل در ملاكات منصوص مربوط به عبادتهاي نماز،روزه وحج به اين نتيجه مي رسيم كه خداوند متعال براساس مصالحي   در اين احكام براي زن ومرد تفاوت قايل شده است.وهمچنين در روايات معصومين نيز در شرح احكام اين سه عبادت براي زن ومرد تفاوتهايي وجود داشته است. در اين پژوهش، نگارنده با تبيين و توضيح چگونگي موارد اختلافات احكام زن و مرد   در ملاكات منصوص به اين نتيجه رسيده است. تفاوت در احكام تكليفي زن و مرد در عبادات صلاه، صوم و حج صرفا با توجه به مقتضيات جسماني و اجتماعي بوده است .درواقع خداوند متعال در برخي از موارد از زن رفع تكليف نموده است كه با توجه به وضعيت جسماني ضعيف او است. مثلا زن در ايام حيض و يا نفاس ملزم به انجام اقامه نمازو روزه داري نيست. همچنين در ايام بارداري و شيردهي روزه داري براي حفظ سلامت طفل شيرخوار،جنين و مادر از زن در صورت ضرر   برداشته شده   است. با بررسي ملاكات منصوص در مناسك حج هم به اين نتيجه مي رسيم كه   خداوند متعال به عفت و حياي زن توجه داشته و زنان را از اعمالي همچون بلند لبيك گفتن ،معذور قرار داده است معاف داشته و يا   لباس احرام كه   بايد ساده باشد و انسان را از عالم ماديات خارج سازد؛   لذا مردان به جز ازار كوتاه و ردا اجازه پوشيدن هيچ نوع لباس ديگري را ندارند، ولي با توجه به حفظ حيا و حرمت زن خداوند متعال به زن اجازه پوشيدن لباسهاي دوخته شده را نيز داده است . كليد واژه:حج،عبادت،روزه،نماز،حج، ملاك منصوص،نابرابري،تكاليف زن و مرد

   Adorno’s aesthetic theory is concerned with the relation of art and society. He introduces the disartification of art which means that a work of art not only cannot be separated from its social context but also is dedicated to mirror the society within which it occurs. Long Day’s Journey into Night is an autobiographical four-act play written by the American playwright Eugene O’Neil. This study, by presenting a clear vision of Adorno’s aesthetic theory and the concepts of capitalism, reification, mass culture, and fetishization, tries to analyze O’Neil’s play in a Marxist manner. This social and political masterpiece will be thoroughly elaborated according to Adorno’s aesthetic theory. This study focuses on the potency of Adorno’s theory in elucidating O’Neil’s criticism of a capitalist system, in the above-mentioned play, in which people are the laborers in the process of producing capital and are tragically diminished as a consequence.    Key words: Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, Anti-Capitalism, Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night

   Abstract “War Poetry” is a relatively new genre in literature but the frequent occurrence of wars has changed it to a popular and universal topic. The outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918) in Europe and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) diverted the course of writing poetry about war in Britain and Iran. This comparative study concentrating on the subject of “War Poetry” is a descriptive-analytic study on similarities and disparities between “English War Poetry” and “Iranian War Poetry”. Close reading of selected English war poems by some of the most known British war poets like Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, … and selected Iranian war poems by some of the most known Iranian war poets like Qeysar Aminpour, Mohammadreza Abdolmalekian, Alireza Ghazveh, … reveals significant differences despite the existence of general similarities between them; a point which is an indication of a deep gap between the viewpoint of British and Iranian war poets. This study is in line with American school of comparative literature, and Steven Totosy De Zepetnek’s theories form its underlying structure. In an effort to identify the main factors in the origin and evolution of “English and Iranian War Poetry” this study examines socio-cultural and historical background of British and Iranian societies in the years leading up to and during each war. Then through a thematic analysis the main features, similarities and differences of the two types of “War Poetry” are identified and compared. The psychological concept of “Shellshock” helps to decipher and justify the cause of diverse approaches of British and Iranian war poets towards the issue of war. KEY TERMS: Comparative study, English war poetry, Iranian war poetry, Psychoanalysis, Shell shock.   ?

   Abstract      Environmental issues have held the attention of both scholars and literary writers as significant matter of the present day. In the meantime, there are some writers who have attempted to persuade human beings to rethink nature by looking upon it through new lenses and reconciling humanity with it. A leading concept in this regard is “anthropocentrism,” which strengthens humans’ (harsh) attitudes toward animals and non-human living things. However, Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” theory absolutely rejects such human-centeredness in environmental issues and argues for the rights of non-humans. Richard Powers’ Bewilderment (2021) is an ecocritical novel addressing these issues, challenging anthropocentrism and advocating environmental equality for all living beings. Applying an interdisciplinary approach to the topic mentioned, the present study discusses how human beings’ treachery against the environment is questioned. The novel projects the ideology of industrial societies which take advantage of the environment for their beneficiary and neglect the future of the Earth and it also depicts the condition of those who are concerned with nature and all its components, regarded as the minority, and unable to save the Earth. In addition, it demonstrates that creating changes in societies’ perspectives requires providing a cultural context. As long as human beings look upon the environment as the owners of it, one can do nothing for the future of the Earth. Key words: Anthropocentrism, Animal Rights, Bewilderment, Biocentrism, Land Ethic, Biocentrism, Richard Powers

   Albert Bandura's theory of “moral disengagement” that mainly discusses that within every person there are self-regulatory mechanisms with which they can actively engage and disengage their moral standards while preserving their self-respect. If they fail in doing so, the consequence of their actions might bring self-destruction to themselves and others. To prevent such destruction from happening, the human psyche decides to look away and disengage any moral standard by utilizing self-regulatory mechanisms. To activate those mechanisms in order to disengage morality and commit the harmful and immoral conduct, people use their words and thoughts in a way that justifies their harmful action, and consequently, would result in the activation of self- regulatory mechanisms. Each mechanism has its unique trait that is a related to an aspect of human behavior, such as “moral justification”, “euphemistic labelling”, “diffusion of responsibility”, and etc. Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (2003) pictures a post-apocalyptic world which a mad scientist named Crake has caused to happen. The present thesis will investigate the psychosocial reasons behind Crake's ultimate and disastrous decision in light of Bandura's theory of “moral disengagement”. In this regard, Crake's personality and actions and the way they affect other characters in the novel are the basis around which the novel and its main events revolve. Using Bandura's psychosocial mechanisms of moral disengagement, this study endeavors to decipher the truth behind his behaviors to reveal a better understanding of the events of the novel, that is, his inhuman and immoral decision to wipe out the humanity and creating bio-engineered humans who will roam the earth, acting like a god although he completely discards the idea of religion and holiness, is done without a single feeling of remorse or guilt for the disengagement of morality is in place.

   به ندرت پيش مي آيد كه ناهمواري ها به صورت سالم و دست نخورده باقي بمانند و قطعا پيكره چين خوردگي به وسيله عملكرد زمين ساخت دچار تغيير مي گردد. مورفومتري در واقع تحليل هاي كمي از ويژگي هاي ژئومورفيك لند فرم هاي يك منطقه است .در اين پژوهش ضمن بررسي اثر مستقيم چين ها   در چهره زمين به عنوان عوارض مقياس كوچك زمين ساخت، نقشي را كه ساختمان مي تواند در كنترل مسير و الگوي رودها و سامانه زهكشي داشته باشد و همچنين مواقعي كه نمي تواند اين نقش را ايفا كند،بررسي خواهيم كرد. به همين منظورجمع آوري داده ها : حدود طاق ها، تشخيص و ترسيم شبكه آبراهه ها، ترسيم محدود? حوضه هاي هر آبراهه   از DEM 10 متر استان در محيط GIS،   انتخاب طاق هاي داخل استاني ، ويرايش مرز طاق ها و حوضه ها   درGIS، تفكيك روزهاي مستقر در يال­هاي غربي و شرقي و كلوزهاي طاق ها در GIS ،   تنظيم جدول خروجي ها و طبقه بندي طاق­ها و حوضه ها صورت گرفت. .   نتايج نشان مي دهد. همه طاق­ها به طور كلي به يك اندازه در برابر فرسايش واكنش نشان داده­اند و اگر ساختمان نقشي را در عملكرد فرسايش ايفا كرده است اين نقش دست كم در مقياس كل طاقديس­ها معني دار نبوده و در همه آن ها نقش يكساني را ايفا كرده است."شاخص نسبت مساحت طاقديس­ها به مساحت حوضه­هاي روزها و كلوزها با حجم فرسايش طاقديس­ها ارتباط معني داري دارد "   تأييد مي­شود. اين آزمون نشان داد كه بين روزهاي دو طرف يال ها تفاوت معني داري وجود ندارد ولي بين روزها و كلوزها تفاوت خيلي مشخصي وجود دارد. به عبارتي كلوزها تخربب خيلي زيادي را نسبت به روزها ايجاد كرده اند.طاق­ها به طور كلي به يك اندازه در برابر فرسايش واكنش نشان داده­اند و اگر ساختمان نقشي را در عملكرد فرسايش ايفا كرده است اين نقش دست كم در مقياس كل طاقديس­ها معني دار نبوده و در همه آن ها نقش يكساني را ايفا كرده است كليد واژه : مورفومتري، طاقديس، فرسايش، زاگرس چين خورده

   The present thesis is concerned with the influence of Brecht’s “Epic Theatre” theory on the selected works of two English dramatist. Its main purpose is to critically analyze the effect of Brecht’s “Epic Theatre” theory on the work of two modern English dramatists: John Arden (1930-2012) and Edward Bond (1934- ). To achieve this purpose, this thesis will read Brecht’s The Three Penny Opera (1928) and The Private Life of the Master Race (1938) to analyze his influence on Arden’s The Island of the Mighty trilogy and Bond’s Saved and The Fool. A dimension of Brecht’s influence is that he has promoted the development of 20th-century drama. Also, his “epic theatre” is a new genre in political drama that provides a constructive criticism of life in this period. However, what distinguishes Brecht’s theater is Alienation Effect. Brecht’s theatrical technique is a method for detachment, one that leads to the separation of the audience from the character, which causes the former feel that he is other than the latter. Consequently, the researcher studies John Arden’s The Island of the Mighty and Edward Bond’s Saved and The Fool to trace how elements of Brecht’s Epic Theatre theory are manifested in the selected plays. The elements that the researcher needs to investigate include as family disintegration, individual alienation, and social violence. Moreover, the principles of moral training which mirror Brecht’s stylistics can be focus of this study. Key words: Epic theatre, Bertolt Brecht, English drama, Alienation Effect, Edward Bond, John Arden

   The present research is a stylistic study. It takes to analyze comparatively the prose style of J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) and Helene Cixous’s Inside (1969), in light of Cixous’s theory of “Feminine Writing”. So, this research tries to do a double task, because it will attempt to explode the borderlines of language and literature, which means that more than one time it will come and go between the former and the latter. The researcher focuses on how the stylistic features of language operate in Inside and The Catcher in the Rye. So the analysis of the feminine use of language in the former in comparison with the masculine application of it in the latter is the main job of this research. It is thus that Cixous theorizes that the women’s language and their act of writing are the best spaces (means) of their new existence against the traditionally linear patriarchal discourse. Inside and The Catcher in the Rye are the works of a female and a male author respectively. So, language takes different functions in them, and the main concern of this thesis is to provide a critical analysis of feminine versus masculine roles of language in these novels. Notwithstanding, analyzing these literary texts in light of a feminine theory of writing, the present thesis intends to provide the readers with a chance to read fiction from a feminine perspective. And the main characters of Cixous and Salinger are different in gender, because one of them is a male while the other one is a female.   Keywords: Ecriture Feminine, Medusa, Phallocentrism, Logocentrism, Stylistics, Writing the body

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      Floods are a serious natural disaster. It can cause significant damage to crops. It is often necessary to know the extent of damage to crops immediately after a flood. Iran, as one of the few accident-prone countries in the world, witnesses numerous floods in different parts of the country every year. One of the most widespread recent floods occurred in the spring of 2019 in the country and affected the agricultural and biological area of ??Ravansar county as one of the agricultural hubs in Kermanshah province. In this study, using optical images of Sentinel 2 satellite before and after the flood on April 4, 2017, the water zone was identified and after subtraction from the pre-flood river zone, the net flood area was identified. Then, the dry and irrigated crops with an accuracy of 10 meters were extracted by the support vector machine method (SVM) and land use samples of the Natural Resources Organization. After the overlap of flood zone and agricultural lands, the amount of damage was determined separately for dry and irrigated areas based on the border of villages. Ravansar county has 48,519 hectares of cropland, of which 33,474 hectares are dry lands and 15045 hectares are irrigated lands, according to the results of land use machine detected. The results showed that the volume of floods in the spring of 2019 was 10979 million cubic meters, of which 175 hectares were dry lands and 400 hectares were irrigated lands in Ravansar county. Something more than 2800 times more than the conditions of the surface water of Ravansar county during the flood can be seen. The maximum amount of damage is in the central part with an area of ??400 hectares. In dry and irrigated agriculture, the highest amount of damage with an area of ??93 hectares and 305 hectares has been recorded in Hassanabad district. The main flood area is geomorphologically within 200 meters distance of the river (84%), plain landforms and open slopes (70%) and corresponds to the alluvial formation type (85%).  

Objective: in this inquiry, the researcher, with the help of the theory of the contemporary American feminist-philosopher Judith Butler's ideas on gender and gender performativity, tries to peruse the female protagonist, Sula Peace, who ho lives in a patriarchal society with its norms and gender conventions. Sula stands as an opposing type of woman who questions patriarchal order. This inquiry analyzes the female protagonist in Toni Morrison's "Sula" by depending on Butler's theory about gender performativity. Methodology: in Butler's view, gender is not a biological, innate, and fixed phenomenon but a concept constructed by many factors such as culture and tradition. The consequence of such construction is that the aim of a compulsory heterosexual society is fulfilled. Relying on Butler's ideas, it becomes clear how the ideals of a heteronormative community that wants to spread the norms of heterosexuality limit individuals' gender. Findings: Sula reflects a community in which patriarchal orders are constantly circulating; these ideals expect women to be passive, submissive, and prepared to accept mothers and wives' roles. Such expectations cause too much pressure for women to endure. Result: Sula challenges all the social conventions imposed on her through family and society; she also defies the sexually preventing gender roles and contests the conventional view of womanhood and motherhood. Sula gradually becomes an independent and autonomous self. Through a careless way of living, opposing the standards of her society and the prescribed rules that society has imposed on her, Sula continuously questions and challenges the norms of her society: she never gets married, she never becomes a mother, and she has many premarital affairs both with white and black men. However, at the end of the novel, Sula's case shows that patriarchy can never be fully overcome; it can only be resisted since patriarchy determines all the restrictions in a conventional society. Key Words: Butler, Feminism, Otherness, Patriarchy, Sula, Toni Morrison   

The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner is the story of a society which is controlled by the ideology of an apparently invisible minor group. In Dashner’s story, when Thomas, the protagonist, and a group of teenagers wake up in a strange spiraling neighborhood, they remember nothing of the outside world, except the strange dreams of a mysterious organization known as W.I.C.K.E.D. It is only by digging into the memories of the past and finding a few signs available in the maze that Thomas can hope to realize why they have come to this place and that they must find an exit from it. In The Maze Runner series, mankind is regarded not only as the subject of cognition but also as a more conflicting arrangement within which he appears. So, in the discourse of Dashner’s novels, mankind becomes aware of his limitations and endings. Therefore, the argument of this research will be based on a part of Michel Foucault’s philosophy. Foucault argues that while in the modern society rather no cruel punishment is implemented against criminals, punishment often takes different forms of surveillance. In fact, the purpose of this study is to analyze The Maze Runner trilogy in light of Foucault’s theory of discourse. In this regard, this thesis will analyze the main conflict in Dashner’s trilogy, that is, the conflict between power-holders and the subordinate characters who are controlled by them. Following this purpose, this thesis does not assume that power relations in Dashner’s trilogy are equally distributed among the citizens or social classes, but that there is a network of relations among the power-holders which is constantly expanding. In connection with analyzing the subjectivity of the characters, this research takes these power relations as the realization of a vast network that goes deep into the society with which every man is more or less involved. Keywords: Foucault, James Dashner, discourse, power relations, The Maze Runner

  The present thesis takes a Marxist approach towards DonDeLillo’s White Noise (1985) and Cosmopolis (2003) by using Louise Althusser's theories. It will firstly analyze Cosmopolis and then will delve into White Noise to find the anti-capitalist common grounds between them and the way the capitalist ideologies are internalized within their characters as presented by DeLillo. White Noise represents a fight against the capitalist ideology. The reproduction that Althusser speaks of, in addition to the reproduction of labor, is also the reproduction of the conditions of production which are manifested in the novels under study. Cosmopolis, moreover, artistically portrays the financial structures of the capitalist society in America. The relationships among these structures are symbolized by the journey that Eric Packer makes around Manhattan. The most important concept in this novel is money about which DeLillo’s characters often talk regarding their betting and investments on Yen. Eric, the protagonist, symbolizes the American capitalism that DeLillo believes is coming to an end. Analyzing Cosmopolis and White Noise in light of Althusser, the researcher thus evaluates the capitalist ideology that causes the self-alienation of characters in Cosmopolis and assesses the consumerist ideology that haunts the materialist consciousness of the characters in White Noise. Finally, it will be demonstrated how the anti-capitalist structures and mechanisms contribute to the liberty of characters’ in Cosmopolis and White Noise. Keywords: Althusser, DeLillo, capitalism, ideology, self-alienation, Cosmopolis, White Noise   

The twenty-first-century literature has experienced a shift in taste and methods of expression of ideas, as reflected in Metamodernism, introduced by Robin van den Akker and Timotheus Vermeulen to explore this shift in literary appeal. Although metamodernism is an approach in its naissance, it has drawn many twenty-first-century literary works and theorists toward itself due to its ability to connect with the contemporary audience through certain features of its artworks which have proven more incongruent with contemporary socio-cultural issues. These features are often an adjusted form of former traits used in modernism and postmodernism which have been modified to fit contemporary needs and tastes. Regardless of their heritage, these metamodern features are exclusive to twenty-first-century artworks and should not be confused with their predecessors. In this light, certain terminologies such as “infinite Real” and “historioplastic metafiction,” respectively an aversion of the “Real” in former philosophical and psychological fields and a modified form of “historiographic metafiction”, suggest that truth and reality are infinite and the past and future are connected through a plastic connection. Accordingly, A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan has certain metamodern features and can be used as a good example of metamodernist fiction regarding Egan’s rendering of the concepts of the “infinite Real” and “historioplastic metafiction” among others. This study, being interdisciplinary in approach with a thematic investigation, is an attempt to investigate A Visit from the Goon Squad in light of the main principles of Metamodernism in order to present the contemporary audience with an introductory guideline to read metamodernist fiction.   Key words: A Visit from the Goon Squad, Historioplastic metafiction, Infinite Real, Jennifer Egan, Metamodernism

The objective of the present study is to evaluate Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy in light of Gramsci’s theory of culture and hegemony. The present thesis raises the essential question of what the relationship between culture and hegemony is. Through the study of Gramsci’s views, the thesis highlights the fact that there is a direct relationship between culture and hegemony, contrary to the popularbelief that the concept of hegemony is mistakenly equivalent to the concept of coercive domination. Cultural hegemony is a kind of domination exercise mixed with consent and based on the cultural and ideological leadership of societies. The argument here is then the hypothesis that Gramsci’s elaboration on the concept of hegemony has seemingly affected or has found some manifestation in Collins' approach towards culture, politics, and ideology, as extrapolated in her description of Panem in the trilogy, leading her to focus on the issue that culture could also be one of the main causes of economic and cultural subjugation. As a result, culture, which is a key analytical notion in the present research, is defined as a productive process or a means of production. Referring to the leftist cultural ideas as well as the creation of new cultural concepts, as represented in Collins' trilogy, this thesis does not take culture as necessarily crystallizing into the highest cultural product but considers the culture of each era as a combination of past cultural elements, dominant elements, and emerging elements.Keywords: The Hunger Games, Gramsci, Hegemony, Panem, Suzanne Collins

Although reflective teaching is enumerated as a significant feature of effective teachers, there is little empirical evidence to demonstrate its influence on learners’ evaluation. This study examines the relationship between EFL teachers' degree of reflection and learners’ evaluation of teacher effectiveness. Data were collected from 71 Iranian EFL teachers teaching at the private language institutes and 296 language learners. Reflective teaching inventory designed by Akbari, Behzadpour, and Dadvand (2010) was administered to the teachers and their learners’ evaluation was elicited through Murdoch’s (2000) checklist. The statistical analysis revealed significant positive relationships between reflection subscales and learners’ evaluation. It was thus assumed that understanding how reflection can change language learners’ evaluations can shed light on the role of reflection in improving teachers' performance and consequently learners’ appraisal. Hence, ten teachers with the highest degree of reflection participated in follow-up interviews. Analysis of the interview data, indicated how reflection sub-scales contribute to teachers' in getting higher ratings from learners. In line with these findings, the implications for teachers, administrators and teacher education are discussed.   

  This study is conducted to investigate the novels Nocturnal Harmony from The Wood Orchestra by Reza Ghasemi (1996) and The Last Illusion by Porochista Khakpour, focusing on the social dir=ltr>Key words: Homi Bhabha, Hybridity, Identity, Subjectivity, Porochista Khakpour, The Last Illusion, Reza Ghasemi, Nocturnal Harmony from The Wood Orchestra

History is a narrative written or documented by human beings, and human beings are never free from their subjective preferences and their political as well as socio-cultural biases. Postmodern historical fiction, especially the genre of “historiographic metafiction”, highlights this issue more than traditional historical writings by foregrounding the subjective nature of historiography, at the same time as it reflects the process of writing about history. Those postmodern novels which can be called “historiographic metafiction” do in fact awaken readers to the nature of historical events and their truth values. With the fall of grand narratives, no established historical fact maintains its authority against marginalized historical events and their importance. Paul Auster’s Leviathan is a postmodern novel which can be read through Linda Hutcheon’s discussion of the characteristics of “historiographic metafiction”, since there are counter-cultural historical facts in this novel that Auster has tried to highlight. Set in the 1980s United States, Leviathan is the story of a peaceful writer who becomes a bomber against the Republican policies of the era and tries to deliver his message by exploding the replicas of the Statue of Liberty. By foregrounding the subculture of the leftists and radicals of the era, Auster has tried to let his readers know about marginalized groups whose voice could not be truthfully heard in the face of authorities, meanwhile incorporating several postmodern narrative techniques that contribute to his postmodern historiography as befits the principles of “historiographic metafiction”.

  Helen Cixous prescribes the language of femininity in the form of feminine writing, and states that male literature is based on binary oppositions. Men’s literature has unnecessarily torn the reality through concepts and words, and has made it a dilemma: subject versus object, the sun against the moon, culture versus nature, day in front of night, speech versus text and man versus woman. In these oppositions, there is always a pole on the other. From the perspective of Cixous the source of i  iration for all these contradictions is rooted in the fundamental dichotomy between men and women, in which the man deals with everything active, cultural, and generally positive, and the woman deals with everything passive, natural, and dark which is generally negative.Thus, a woman in the masculine world finds existence only in terms of the male vocabulary and concepts. In a word, the woman derives from the man; the man is “self” and the woman is the “Other.” Once a woman can act as her own or in the text, she emanates from the structure of the symbolic order which is related to the masculine look and forms a new kind of text with a new structure. According to Helen Cixous, to find women’s literature, it is necessary to differentiate between the two sexes in the text and create a form of femininity that can justify the creation of the meaning that femininity must be explored and, at the same time, not demanded. In her most important work, The Laugh of the Medusa, she challenges the concept of Freud’s quagmire anxiety. In The Laugh of the Medusa, Cixous states that this male view of a woman with a lack of character has implications for social and political demonstrations. Reflecting on the sexualization of Medusa, she rejects Freud’s theory, like many other ideas that insist on a woman as a hysterical or someone with a dark nature, Cixous puts forward a challenging idea of ??the insurgency or the same women’s writing that can overthrow the dominant male-dominated system. Both Roth’s Divergent and Daneshvar’s novel struggle to challenge the male-dominated and patriarchal system which reduces them to nothing more than a miserable entity. The system states that women are deprived of their organized cultural, psychological and sexual rights, while other forms of oppression, like ethnic or racial discrimination, also exacerbate the denial of women, which is generally left unnoticed by the critics and scholars.

  The way an individual presents himself to others depends upon the society in which he lives.Urban life in twenty first century has formed its residents into complex individuals whoseidentity and destiny is closely tied to the society’s influences. My thesis approaches ZadieSmith’ NW through the lens of Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality, in order to demonstratethe presence of hyperreality in the setting of the story as well as in each of the characters’behavior. As the border between reality and simulation grows faint, hyperreality advents. Onthe other hand, what the society expects of each individual is to adjust herself with the normsoffered by it, and the modern urban society of northwest London demands no less from itsresidents. In the case of the characters of NW, what is lost amid their efforts to present a moreacceptable self for the society is their true identities. Finding the reasons why and how thesociety affects and forms its individuals is another important aspect in studying hyperreality.Thereby in this research first the Baudrillardian concepts of hyperreality and simulation aswell as his social theories about media and technology and their relation to one another areelucidated. After that, the social influences that Baudrillard finds significant and those thatSmith has depicted as influential are compared to determine whether hyperreality is a validelement of influence on the characters of NW.Keywords: identity, Zadie Smith, urban life, hyperreality, sociology, Baudrillard

  Abstract   The present paper intends to read Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe from a Deleuzian perspective. In opposition to a kind of literature which is ‘majoritarian’, this paper attempts to provide an adaptation of a ‘minoritarian’ literature. If the latter is innovatory, non-conformist, and interrogative, the former represents a dominant system of rules. I argue that Achebe, an African, and marginalized novelist whose country was under the domination of the British colonization represents a great literature which is considered minor not because it deals with minority, but because it disrupts and dislocates the long established tradition of two different systems. The findings of this thesis demonstrate that readers of such literature come up with a language which is highly loaded with revolutionary thoughts and ideas. Achebe portrays a variety of mutations in the two novels under study that work toward liberation from subjugation of both tribal and British systems dominating the stories while his attempts result in deterritorialization of both.Keywords: Gilles Deleuze, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God

This thesis uses Friedrich Nietzsches philosophy and in particular the notions of Slave Morality and Master Morality, to analyze the characters of Look Back in Anger (2002) by John Osborne and Death of a Salesman (1998) by Arthur Miller. For this purpose, Nietzsches related theories will be briefly presented, and then those theories will be used as touchstones in the analyses of the plays. Morality and moral values are the fundamental aspects of life, and the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the few thinkers who have challenged these issues in its global dimensions. Nietzsche has carried out a genealogy in two main aspects of morality. One of them is the state of being slave to those moralities which are based on pre-established laws, while the other is about taking control of ones own life through formulating sets of values which resist impositions. Nietzsche (1998) believes that Christianity, through promoting modesty, has systematically destroyed aristocratic values. This has led to the birth of "Resentment" among ordinary people, whom he identifies as "the herd". According to Nietzsche, following pre-written values in vain can nevertheless makes us slaves, and only through Will to Power, one can reach master morality. Nietzsche (2002), however, identifies people with master morality as ‘noble’ and pious, describing them the ones who have devised their own values, while they do not see any need for other peoples approval. He adds that that the nobles believe that they prescribe values to things and, therefore, they are ‘value makers’. That can, therefore, enjoy self-reliance, gaiety, and self-valorization. But the ones with Slave Morality are weak, and are always jealous of the power, and the excellence of the noble. Indeed, in their value system, they are dependent upon others.Understanding Master Morality, Slave Morality, Will to Power and the nobles   independence of will are essential for recognizing the dramatizations of these, and their effects on the characters of Look Back in Anger and Death of a Salesman. Accordingly this thesis considers Willy Loman as an actual low man who cannot bear changes and constantly feels bad toward his upper classes. >Keywords: Nietzsche, John Osborne, Arthur Miller, Look back in Anger, Death of a Salesman