46 Research in Contemporary World Literature, Vol. 24, No. 2, Autumn & Winter 2019
The comparative study of universe, god and death in two work Masnavi –e- manavi of Molana Jalal –e- din Balkhi and
Contemplations of Victor Hugo
Leila Mirmojarabain*
Associate professor of Language and Persian Literature department, University of Isfahan,
Isfahan, Iran
Safoura tork ladani**
Associate professor french and russian department, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
(Received: 2016/04/06, Accepted: 2017/09/24 Date of publication: January, 2020)
The irreplaceable artwork will concentrate on both the values of its time and its aftermath. A work of art is both eternal (i.e., specific) and historical (that is, it passes through a progressive stream of inquiry and pursuit). Consequently, regardless of linguistic distinctions, it would be preferable to think of literature as a whole and comprehend its development and evolution. By accepting such an argument in support of the comparative or general literature, we will refute the idea that assumes Eastern or Western literature as one.
By the time a literary work is accepted in another cultural space, it would be incorporated into world literature. For this reason, the literature of the world represents simultaneously the cultural values in the source and host culture. Literary works retain the features of their indigenous culture even after being published in the world literature. Therefore, literature is a universal phenomenon, not a national one, and is one of the most comprehensive aspects of the human dimension. In actual fact, Germans should not only study German literature and the English only English literature. No wonder, selecting is an indisputable fact. Everyone deserves to __________________________________________________________________
* E-mail: [email protected] (Responsible Author)
** E-mail: [email protected]
Abstracts
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choose their literary knowledge from among the best available works, which will not inevitably be written by their compatriots. Such a choice would definitely be based on cosmological criteria, not national or domestic considerations. As a matter of fact, world literature is a collection of precious works, a library of world literary masterpieces.
Due to the fact that comparative literature examines the similarities and differences of the literature of nations, its main focus is the study of the relationships of different literature with each other. This study seeks to analyze and adapt the ideas and thoughts of "Molana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi" and "Victor Hugo" in the fundamental concepts of epistemology and cosmology. The comparative literature, a new way of understanding the culture, thought, and art of nations, authorizes us to study the relationship between Islamic and Christian cultures, relying on the works of two of the prominent thinkers of each, namely Rumi and Hugo. They represent and portray the sheer culture of their people.
In this research, a special method of synchronization in comparative literature has been applied to explore the similarities and homogeneities of the Molana and Hugo schoolings and disciplines. The synchronization method is one that gives the author permission to analyze and investigate two works of art from two different nationalities in terms of content and cultural-ideological content. Accordingly, the thematic method is the basic principle considered in this study. By way of explanation, the research method in this dissertation is based on content-based approaches that emphasize the content of the work and its contextual implications in a completely thematic way and they would be studied and criticized.
In other words, considering the classifications of French and American schools of comparative literature, this study is based on an American school which, unlike the French school, does not focus on the relationships of "effect and regret" but its emphasis is on "thought transference", similarity, and even difference and disparity.
As a consequence, the study focuses more on the themes and styles, and its study approach is transhistorical.
That being so, relying on concurrency and content-based approaches, among different theories and approaches of comparative literature, the author seeks to address some of the major theories that can be examined in analyzing the works of these two thinkers.
No civilization would be capable to survive without ideals, namely without having
48 Research in Contemporary World Literature, Vol. 24, No. 2, Autumn & Winter 2019
firm faith in moral theories. In the past, our ideals and moral theories were rooted in the religion of the nations, but now the religious foundations of our life's aspirations are weakened and their structure is clearly unstable. Hence, if this is the case, early death of civilizations may be inevitable (see: Volk, 1370: 548_541). Both worldviews examined in this study concur with their aspirations with a firm faith in religious-ethical theories as the religious foundation is clear in all of their transcendent goals. Actually, Rumi and Hugo both strive to make life more meaningful by extending their teachings to human beings, because understanding the meaning of human life helps to perceive how different elements of the life are settled. They are unique, sophisticated and integrated, allowing humanity to excel in the path of conduct.
In fact, in most religious-mystical perspectives, there are three issues of objectivity of value, its attainability, and the pattern of life that follows. The major religions of the world have a common structure similar to these three particular elements. They assume a state or being above this world that is worthy of being supreme. They also consider a human purpose which is consciously communicating with that value.
According to religions, there is a way to reach one's goal that enables them to draw the story of their life on the path of a seeker in the pursuit of others, and to step into the path of a credible teacher or instructors who in that particular way have attained that goal or have cleared it.
In these thoughts, theism has a direct relationship to freedom, liberation, meaningfulness, and salvation in life, so intertwined that they can never be unraveled. Because theism claims that it provides us with the truth about the world, and it is important to have sincere beliefs in reaching human goals.
This article is an analytical-comparative study of the ideas and beliefs of the great Iranian poet, Rumi Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi, and Victor Hugo, representative of nineteenth-century romantic poetry in France. In this study, the author attempts to address the convergences and divergences of these two worldviews by comparing the ideas of Rumi and Victor Hugo on "God", "the Universe" and "Death" and to grasp the point that a change in the geographical and social region and the historical moments in the works of world literature in the field of comparative literature does not disrupt the truth that these works seek to instill in the audience. To achieve this, as mentioned above, the synchronous or subject-based method and the thematic method have been applied.
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To this end, the book of Victor Hugo's Contemplations, which can be said to represent the school of Romanticism, is the basis for analyzing and examining Hugo's ideas to be reconciled with the ideas of Rumi in Mathnawi and Shams' sonnets. Thus, the divine views of both thinkers are proved on the basis of their poems and consequently result in the closeness and convergence of the unity of thoughts between the two worldviews.
Keywords: Rumi, Victor Hugo, Hugo Reflections, God, World, Death.
