Research in Contemporary World Literature

Research in Contemporary World Literature

The Magic of Narrative Fluidity: Narrative Techniques in Shahriyar Mandanipour’s Aghrab Keshi Based on Jaap Lintvelt Theory

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Ayda Izadabadi 1
Hossein Razavian 2
Mahnaz Karbalaei Sadegh 1
1 Department of English Language and Linguistics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran.
10.22059/jor.2026.406244.2773
Abstract
Shahriar Mandanipour’s novel Aghrab keshi stands as one of the most significant examples of innovative narrative experimentation in contemporary Persian fiction, challenging conventional analytical models through its fluid and multilayered structure. The central issue of this study is the phenomenon of “narrative fluidity,” a mode in which the boundaries between narrator and character collapse and the narrator’s position of knowledge becomes unstable. The research employs a descriptive-analytical method grounded in Jaap Lintvelt’s typology of narrative, complemented by Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony. Findings indicate that Mandanipour constructs narrative fluidity through four key mechanisms: the deliberate overlap of narrative levels, the use of multiple narrators, the erosion of boundaries between speech and thought, and the creation of instability in focalization. These strategies serve not only aesthetic functions but also respond to the crisis of representing reality in modern and postmodern contexts, functioning as a mode of resistance against dominant ideological and totalizing narratives. The study concludes that narrative fluidity in Aghrab keshi is not merely a technical device but a stylistic and epistemological strategy that blurs the boundaries between reality and language, objectivity and subjectivity, and the individual and the collective. As such, it offers a new model for mind-centered, polyphonic, and poetically inflected storytelling in contemporary Persian narrative fiction.

Keywords
Narrative Fluidity
Narrative typology
Jaap Lintvelt
. Shahriyar Mandanipour
Aghrab keshi
Subjects
Abbasi, Ali. 2002. “Gune-ha-ye Ravayati” [“Narrative Types”]. Pazhuheshnameye Olume Ensani, no. 33: 51–74.
Abbasi, Ali, and Maliheh Rashidi. 2017. “Sakhtar-e Roman-e Be Hades Khosh Amadid bar Asas-e Nazariye-ye Jaap Lintvelt va Grimas” [“The Structure of the Novel Welcome to Hades Based on the Theories of Lintvelt and Greimas”]. Do-Faslname-ye Ravayat Shenasi, no. 1: 125–145.
https://www.narratologyjournal.ir/article_47167_dedaeedfd0cbd8920d5bffb550d1de2b.pdf.
Abbasi, Payam, and Ali Saeidi. 2015. “Teknik-ha-ye Ravaie: Ruykardi Sakhtargarayaneh be Senobar va Zane Khofte-ye Shahriyar Mandanipour” [“Narrative Techniques: A Structuralist Approach to Senobar and The Sleeping Woman by Mandanipour”]. Pazhuhesh-e Adabiat-e Mo’aser-e Jahan 20, no. 2: 317–338. https://doi.org/10.22059/jor.2015.57088.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M. Bakhtin. Translated by C. Emerson and M. Holquist. Edited by M. Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Davoodi, Mohammadreza, and Solmaz Mozaffari. 2021. “Barresi-ye Ravayat dar Majmue-ye Dastan-e Kootah-e Hashtomin Ruz-e Zamin az Shahriyar Mandanipour az Didgah-e Gerard Genette” [“Analyzing Narration in Mandanipour’s Short Story Collection The Eighth Day of the Earth from Gerard Genette’s Perspective”]. Majalle-ye Motale’at-e Shahriyar Pazhuhi 8, no. 29: 363–392.
Eagleton, Terry. 1997. Literary Theory: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
Friedman, Norman. 1955. “Point of View in Fiction: The Development of a Critical Concept.” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 70: 1160–1184.
Genette, Gérard. 1980. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Translated by Jane E. Lewin. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Genette, Gérard. 1982. Figures of Literary Discourse. Translated by Marie-Rose Logan. New York: Columbia University Press.
Haddadi, Elham, and Farhad Doroudgarian. 2020. Ravayat Shenasi va Naghd-e Ravayat dar Dastan-ha-ye Entrkhabi-ye Mo’ase [Narratology and Narrative Criticism in Selected Contemporary Stories]. Tehran: Niloufar.
Heydarizad-karrati, Mahdiye. 2023. “Shegerd-ha-ye Ravayat dar Dastan-ha-ye Aylar va Saloomeh” [“Narrative Techniques in Aylar and Saloomeh”]. Paper presented at the Fourth National Conference of Innovation and Research in Persian Language and Literature.
Khanmohammadi, Mohammadhossein, Teymoor Malmir, and Golaleh Moradi. 2014. “Tahlil-e Sakhtari-ye Se Dastan-e Kootah (Sharq-e Banafshe’, Sham-e Sarv, Atash va Narbanu) Shahriyar Mandanipour” [“Structural Analysis of Three Short Stories by Mandanipour: The East of Violet, Sarv’s Dinner, Fire and Narbanu”]. Faslname-ye Elmi Pazhuheshi Zaban va Adab-e Farsi (Daneshkadeh Adabiyat va Zaban-ha-ye Khareji, Sanandaj) 6, no. 21: 51–82. https://ensani.ir/file/download/article/20160823135043-9535-143.pdf.
Laj, David, et al. 2010. Nazariye-ha-ye Roman [Theories of the Novel]. Translated by Hossein Payandeh. Tehran: Niloufar.
Lintvelt, Jaap. 1989. Essai de Typologie: Le “point de Vue.” Paris: José Corti.
Lintvelt, Jaap. 2011. Resaleh-ie dar bab-e Guneh-Shenasi-ye Ravayat, Noghte-ye Did [Essay on the Typology of Narrative: Point of View]. Translated by Ali Abbasi and Naser Hejazi. Tehran: Elmi va Farhangi.
Lubbock, Percy. 1965. The Craft of Fiction. Londres: Jonathan Cape.
Mandanipour, Shahriyar. 2004. Ketab-e Arvah-e Shahrzad: Saze-ha, Shegerd-ha va Form-ha-ye Dastan-e now [The Book of Shahrzad’s Spirits: Structures, Techniques and Forms of Modern Stories]. Tehran: Ghoghnoos.
Mandanipour, Shahriyar. 2020. Aghrab Keshi [Scorpion Smoking]. London: Mehri.
Martin, Wallace. 2012. Nazariye-ha-ye Ravayat [Narrative Theories]. Translated by Mohammad Shahba. Tehran: Hermes.
Nazemisejzi, Z , seyfi, T and Abbassi, A. (2021). Narrative typology in the novel The Jerusalem's lantern by Ali BadrAccording to the theory of Jaap Lintvelt. Journal of Literary Criticism, 5(10), 607-579. doi: 10.22034/jlc.2021.133804
Payandeh, Hossein. 2022. Naghde Adabi ba Ruykard-e Ravayat-Shenasi [Literary Criticism with a Narratological Approach]. Tehran: Niloufar.
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. 2002. Narrative Fiction. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. 2008. Ravayat-e Dastani: Butiqa-ye Moaser [Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics]. Translated by Abolfazl Horri. Tehran: Niloufar.
Robbe-Grillet, Alain. 2019. Baraye Romani no [For a New Novel]. Translated by Parviz Shahdi. Tehran: Afkar.
Rostami, Fereshteh. 2010. “Sakhtar-e Seda dar Dastan-ha-ye Mandanipour: Naqsh-e Zaviye Did dar Seda-ye Dastan” [“The Sound Structure in Mandanipour’s Stories: The Function of Point of View in Narrative Sound”]. She’r Pajoohi, Boostan-e Adab, no. 6: 99–125.
Seifi, Tayebeh, Zahra Nazemi Sejzei, and Ali Abbasi. 2021. “Gune-Shenasi-ye Ravayi dar Roman-e Masabih-e Orshalim Ali Badr bar Asas-e Nazariye-ye Jaap Lintvelt” [“Narrative Typology in the Novel The Jerusalem’s Lantern by Ali Badr According to the Theory of Jaap Lintvelt”]. Do Faslname-ye Ravayat Shenasi, no. 10: 573–607. https://doi.org/10.22034/jlc.2021.133804.
Stanzel, Frantz Karl. 1984. A Theory of Narrative. Translated by C. Goedsche. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stanzel, Frantz Karl. 1995. Die typischen Erzahlsituationen im Roman. Vienna-Stuttgart: W. Braumüller.
Taslimi, Ali, and Soheila Mobaraki. 2014. “Barresi-ye Kanun-e Ravayat va Rabete-ye an ba Jaryan-e Sayal-e Zehn dar Roman-e Del-e Deldadegi” [“Analysis of Focalization and Its Relation to Stream of Consciousness in the Novel Del-e Deldadegi”]. Matn Pazhuhi-ye Adabi 18, no. 59: 27–41. https://ltr.atu.ac.ir/article_10_bb446162bb57834d15f5158a281e5570.pdf.
Todorov, Tzvetan. 1971. “The Two Principles of Narrative.” Diacritics 1, no. 1: 37–54.
Research in Contemporary World Literature
Volume 31, Issue 3
Summer 2026
Pages 383-401