چكيده لاتين :
Introduction and Background
Based on modern educational views, the primary aim of education or any relevant instrument, beyond transferring cultural heritage, is to try reconstructing the past experiences in new formats. To achieve this objective, authors, particularly those who write for children and young adults, attempt to make use of such formats. “Drama” is viewed as one of them; in fact, due to its specific mimesis features and its similarity with children games, drama is in more harmony with their morale.
Myths are considered as one of the important resources for the authors. Myths convey a variety of meanings with themselves. Since children like adults seek meaning, myths can help them convey the meaning and acquaint them with cultural heritage of the past (Pouladi, 2007). Since ancient times, water and even the rain, have played a main part in stories and dramas, because they can affect destiny and life. Their crucial role in myths has caused them to be used as a hypotext (pre-text) in most of famous literary works as well as dramas for children and young adults. One of such works is “Teshtar, The Guardian of Rain” by Atosa Shamloo (2020) for children.
Methodology, Literature Review and Purpose
Having used Genette's Theory of Transtextuality, particularly theory of hypertextuality, the present study attempted to explore the quality of recreating the rain myth in drama entitled “Teshtar, The Guardian of Rain” by Shamlou (2020) and to address the questions below:
- Which parts of the myth have been transformed? Why?
- How does the drama introduce the myth of the rain, its potentials and narrative artistic elegance, and how does it make use of them?
Although, there are some studies on the effects of the myth and the application of intertextuality to examine literary and artistic works, most of them have focused on the adult literature. Hesampour et al. (2016) in their study, examined the story ”It is raining in the large garden” based on the Genette’s intertextuality theory. Also, Jalali (2015) in her study explores intertextuality and its correlation with comparative children's literature. In addition to providing a meaning and a description of the myth, Soltangharaei (2008), attempts to elucidate about the popularity of myths in fictions and fairy tales. Among closely related studies on children and young adults literature in the worlds, those by Latham (2007) and Lundin (1998) are reviewed.
Discussion and Analysis
Teshtar, the rain angel, is originally the name given to a star worshiped in ancient Persia (Afifi, 1995). Based on narrations, Teshtar fights against Apaosh, demon of drought, and gains victory after sacrificing and supplication to Ahuramazda (Yahaghi, 1996).
Throughout the all five phases of transtextuality (intertextuality, architextuality, paratextuality, metatextuality, hypertextuality), the drama “Teshtar, The Guardian of Rain” is affected by the myth of rain. The presence of the myth of rain throughout the drama is to the extent that helps recognize the relation between the rain myth and the drama via paying attention to content and concept.
The first hypotext of each work, is its title. Here, the title is “Teshtar The Guardian of Rain” which serves as the entrance to the text. By selecting the title of the drama, the author helps the audience get mentally prepared to find out the subtle point and detect the text type they are supposed to encounter. Indeed, the existence of Teshtar and rain at the title, is the entrance to the text. The author utilizes them to emphasize that the work includes myth of rain. Most names and terms used throughout the drama are taken from the myth of rain, e.g. Teshtar and Satavis.
Occasionally, the author of the drama “Teshtar, The Guardian of Rain”, uses the whole hypotext or makes use of it without interpolating, sometimes with small changes. However, the hypotext is sometimes exposed to some changes. In fact, the drama is composed of transformation and imitation. Some part of the drama includes imitation while the other part involves transformation; i.e., imitation occurs where Teshtar like a myth, emerges, first in form of a 15-year teen, then turns into a bull with golden horns, and finally turns into a golden bridle horse and gains victory over the demon of drought; and transformation takes place where the author, according to the audience and towards her goals, changes the Teshtar’s role introducing it as a child of a family that is supposed to be the protagonist. Other instances of transformation include Satavis as a beautiful young girl, praying, Ahouramazda, and …. .
The transformational relation of the drama with the myth of rain is founded on the basis of a fact that it has been written for children and young adults, hence, it should be influential, so that the audience can easily connect to the drama, enjoy it, identify with the protagonists, and feel them really.
Conclusion
Persian ancient literature as the manifestation of a rich and mysterious culture of the land, like the old culture across the world, is full of myths and epics. Myths that have emerged within the entire area of life, and even dramas, have exercised effects on dramas for children and young adults due to their similarity with children’s world. One of such myths is the myth of rain that has found its way into scripts because of its role in human life. “Teshtar, The Guardian of Rain” by Shamloo is considered as one of such dramas. According to Genette’s transtextuality criticism, the drama has been fully affected by the myth throughout the five phases of transtextuality. The myth of rain has exercised the biggest influence over hypertextuality, i.e., making use of both imitation and transformation.
In fact, the affectability and transformation, tailored to the audience mood, have created a work for children to guide them toward eidesis thus acquainting them with the myth. Also, Shamloo has considered some thresholds in paratextuality to help comprehend the text. Overall, the drama enjoys all Genette's intertextual relations.
