A Prospective Analysis of the Discourse of War in the Novel "Chess with Doomsday Machine": Reader-Response Criticism
Subject Areas : Literary Criticism and Theory
Ali Taghizadeh
1
,
Mahmoud Kamali
2
1 - sistant Professor of English Language and Linguistic Department, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor of Persian Language and Literature Department, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
Keywords: Chess with the Doomsday Machine, Reader-Response criticism, Discourse relativism, Wolfgang Iser, Response-seeking structure.,
Abstract :
In recent periods, reader-response criticism has challenged traditional and author-centered criticism, and by giving importance to the reader's position, it has changed its absolutist approach to a relativistic one.Wolfgang Iser believes that each reader obtains a new meaning from the text, which indicates the relative nature of meaning.He turns reading fiction into an activity that results in the formation of "literary text" as a phenomenological structure in the reader's mind.In contemporary Iran and under the influence of the imposed war, many texts have addressed the issue of war; among them, the widely read novel "Chess with Doomsday Machine" by Habib Ahmadzadeh, with its new and different approach and perspective, has managed to gain a good position in this field.The present study examines the relativism of war discourse in this novel based on Wolfgang Iser's theory of reader-response criticism and shows that the discourse of the novel, which is the result of the interaction between the text and the reader, is interactive and relativistic.The findings of this research show that although one side of this novel presents a jihad-oriented discourse, the other side cultivates a revisionist discourse that wants the reader to look at the war from a new perspective.In addition, the novel succeeds in attracting the reader and interacting with him, and the reader can fill in the empty spaces of the text, which are often hidden, by reasoning and inferring.
Introduction
Relativism in literary criticism came out of Husserl's phenomenology, and of course, it was Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser who expanded this concept.Following this type of view, Jauss proposes the concept of "reader's expectation horizon", which means that the reader's expectation from the text changes in different periods according to the specific conditions of the reader.Like Jauss, Wolfgang Iser is one of the new hermeneutic thinkers and supporters of the theory that he explained in his book “Act of Reading ".The novel "Chess with Doomsday Machine" by Habib Ahmadzadeh is one of the works that narrate the events of the war with its special perspective.
Research Background
Yahya Talebian and Mona Sadat al-Sayed (2021) in an article entitled "Critical Examination of the Novel Chess with Doomsday Machine based on Theodore Adorno's Theory" conclude that the critical analysis of the text shows the reflection of the society's situation in the narrative and the submission of the text to socially imposed correlations, and makes the tension between dualities a place for reflection.Mohammadreza Yousefi and Tahereh Ahmadi Varzaneh (2019) in a research study of the female characters in four novels including Chess with Doomsday Machine conclude that Ahmadzadeh has been completely successful in characterization based on behavior, dialogue, description of appearance, and environment.Mohammad Alijani (2018) in the article "The Quality of Reflecting Myths in the Doomsday Chess Novel", believes that the author of the novel focuses on the Iran-Iraq war and recreates the mythological narratives of the conflict between God and Satan, creation, and The fall of Adam, the legend of the fight between the dragon and the hero of the Last Supper, Jesus raised some archetypal human concerns such as the suffering and death of humans and whether they are free or forced in the context of destiny and the conflict between good and evil.Sahar Ghaffari (2015) in research entitled "The effect of paratexts on the formation or distortion of the text (an examination of the duality of the novel Chess with Doomsday Machine through the lens of paratexts)" observes a kind of "duality" in Ahmadzadeh's novel, which this work is based on on the one hand It is included in the category of sustainable literature, but on the other hand, it is "in the ranks of nihilistic and predestination works" that considers man to be forced and captured by fate and consider war as a historical force and a product of the rule of fate, an ominous and reprehensible phenomenon.Sahar Ghaffari and Soheila Saeedi (2014) in "Carnivalism in Chess with the Doomsday Machine" include this novel among the works that match Bakhtin's definition of carnivalism in polyphonic novels.It matches and is the center of multilingual performance that emerges from the interaction of different sounds.Hijazi (2013) in research entitled "Analysis of the Polyphonic Novel Chess with the Doomsday Machine" discussed the functions of the language of the novel and different voices based on Milan Kundera's opinion.From Hijazi's point of view, this work is a philosophical realist novel whose wise philosophical dialogues between the characters arouse the audience's curiosity to receive and understand the answers to the questions that are his mental conflict.Razi and Abdulahian (2011) in "Analysis of story elements in the novel Chess with the Doomsday Machine" examine things such as scene design, character design, plot, style, and language of the novel believe that the skill of using story elements in this novel, It has made it a valuable work.In research entitled "Criticism: Chess with a Warrior Who Wanted to Checkmate / Criticism of the novel Chess with the Doomsday Machine", Zanouzi-e Jalali (2006) considers the remarkable score of the novel to be the appropriate point of view of the author and the honesty of the narrator.
Theoretical Framework
The present study examines the discourse of war in Ahmadzadeh's story.This story avoids dogmatism and one-sidedness and moves towards discursive relativism, which will be analyzed based on Wolfgang Iser's theory of reader-centered criticism.Therefore, the main approach of this review is reader-response and interactive.Although it discusses the semiotics of the story to some extent, however, semiotics will be a secondary discussion in this review.Despite this, because in the relativistic discourse of Ahmadzadeh's novel, the possibilities of Iser's aesthetic criticism are well provided, the present review of some of the categories and methods proposed in Iser's theory, including "reading experience", the action of the text and the reader will trace and examine the phenomenological text (virtual text) and the designed process in this novel.Therefore, in this research, "accurate reading" of the main source and other sources is very important, and an effort is made to make the research discussion textual and objective by bringing several examples of novels and some theoretical works of Iser.
Data Analysis
Although the novel "Chess with Doomsday Machine" is in the genre of "Resistance literature", it has fundamental differences from other works of this genre; Because with the issue of war, he prepares a discourse that avoids dogmatism and absolutism and turns to relativism; Because wants the reader make a cultural and discursive review of the war.The text rejects the traditional and predestined views of war and considers it the will of those who want war, and therefore considers it the duty of man to refrain from war to enjoy the blessings of peace.Therefore, it fosters the discourse that contemporary man has the responsibility to control and refuse this phenomenon through understanding in reasoning and interaction in the discourse, which implies a kind of cultural behavior with war.In Chess with the Doomsday Machine, the "reading experience" is an interpretive and productive thing that causes the interaction between the text and the reader.In the article "Reading Process: Phenomenological Approach", Iser argues that the formation of new experiences in the text is the result of the interaction of the sides of this discourse triangle; Although the literary text does not refer the reader to the external reality, its sentences, and other linguistic factors are productive units whose correlation and interaction create a series of claims, statements, and observations in the text; This means that they determine the direction and nature of reading.In this way, reading and understanding are the result of the interaction of factors such as linguistic structures and their effect on the reader's mentality, fictional characters, lanterns that the characters carry with them, shadows on the wall, and even the circulation of the narrator's memory in the ceremony of lamenting by his friends.Now, if the narrator is the representative of the author, and if Mahtab and his mother are the objects of the reader, the giant shadows on the wall are the embodiment of the literary text, and like this type of text, they are borrowed and phenomenological.Icons such as jinn and shadow are intermediate and although they are non-existent, they are considered phenomena; because their existence depends on being presented to our minds, just as the text is the result of the interaction of linguistic structures and the reasoning mentality of the reader and is formed during reading.Discourse relativism is formed in a way that in this work, a three-day section of the imposed war of Iraq against Iran is designed in such a way that its narrative is a space for the interaction of the text and the reader.This process only happens in reading.Its purpose is to achieve tolerance and discourse interaction to avoid dogmatism in the approach of war, and it cultivates a discourse that is not necessarily the same as the discourses of the author, the text, and the reader but is the result of their communication and interaction.Therefore, the story of chess is the literature of discursive relativity of war, which is built in a critical and debated atmosphere.
Conclusion
The novel "Chess with the Doomsday Machine" has a two-sided and incongruous structure, one side of which creates an ideological and jihad-oriented discourse.In contrast, the other side presents a doubt-oriented and revisionist discourse.This novel, in the revisionist direction, refuses to adopt a definite and emphatic position about the war; because its dual discourse includes a space that does not put concepts such as good/evil and light/darkness in conflict with each other, but even prepares the desire for solidarity and compromise between them.Therefore, the dominant discourse of this story, while refraining from dogma, moves towards relativity and tolerance.
Keywords: Chess with the Doomsday Machine, Reader-Response criticism, Discourse relativism, Wolfgang Iser, Response-seeking structure
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