Title: Semiology of Talismans and Enchantment in a Selection of One Thousand and One Nights Tales
Student: Afarin Mirmohammadkhani Semnani
Advisor: Dr. Farhad Mohandespour
Advisor Professor: Dr. Akram Ghasempour
University: Soore / Faculty of Art / Department of Performing Arts
Degree: Master’s
Major: Dramatic Literature
Defense Date: Esfand 1390 (March 2012)
Abstract:
In this dissertation, an attempt has been made to examine talismans and enchantment in some tales of One Thousand and One Nights from a semiotic perspective. One Thousand and One Nights is actually a collection consisting of stories from India, Iran, Egypt, and the Arabs of Baghdad, which should be considered the manifestation of the aspirations, wishes, beliefs, convictions, and customs and traditions of the people of these regions. Talismans and enchantment, which have long been intertwined with human life and hold a proper place in oral literature and folk tales, find a place of emergence among the tales and legends of One Thousand and One Nights. Just like life, where whenever humans fail to face facts and realities or solve the problems and hardships of life, they resort to magic and enchantment, in One Thousand and One Nights too, heroes stranded on the way or exiled from their homeland extend a helping hand towards non-human agents and metaphysical forces and seek their help. The connection between these creatures and their performance in relation to story characters, the manner of presence of unreal creatures alongside humans, the function of magic and enchantment within the framework of the story and its effect on the structure of the work as a whole, the types of magic and enchantment and their practitioners, and generally the position of these elements as an inseparable part of what is called a fairy tale; are among the objectives of this dissertation so that with its help and from this perspective, first the difference between a fairy tale and other narrative genres can be determined and to answer the question of whether all children’s stories and narratives fall within the framework of a fairy tale? Then the degree of importance of the existence of elements such as talismans and enchantment in the texture of fairy tales and addressing it in various artistic genres of children’s work, for the development of children’s creativity, can be determined.
Keyword: Semiology, Talisman, Enchantment, Magic, Fairy tale, One Thousand and One Nights
