Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Associate professor, Department of Persian language and literature, faculty of literature, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Postdoctoral researcher in Persian language and literature, faculty of literature, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
The theory of "Cultural studies", as one of the new approaches of literary criticism, states that literary critics should analyze popular literature in addition to elitist literature in order to understand the state of society's culture from all aspects. According to this theory, culture is the arena of ideological conflict, because it both expands the ideological dominance of the ruling class and resists it. Rulers in all societies try to produce cultural products that strengthen the foundations of their power. For this purpose, cultural studies theorists use the term "Hegemony", which was coined by Antonio Gramsci, the great Marxist theorist. According to Gramsci's theories, hegemony means that the ruling class directs the society with its preferred way of thinking and the dominated classes support their ideals and values. In cultural hegemony, the ruling power wants to control the behavior of the society by maintaining its dominance by creating satisfaction in the lower classes of society and encouraging them to accept moral, political and cultural value. This term describes the influence and cultural dominance of an influential and resourceful social group over its subordinate group; In such a way that the dominant group can satisfy the subordinate group to some extent. The powerful class tries to make the people of the society follow all the beliefs, cultural practices, life styles and wants to destroy other cultural characteristics, including the identity of the minority.
Review
Cardamom candy is the story of a ten-year-old boy named Mohsen, who lives in a family of six in one of the poor neighborhoods of Bojnord during the sixties and the height of the Iran-Iraq war. Mohsen's brother, Mohammad, going to war and the family's concern for his return is the main narration of the story. Although, Cardamom candy wants to make the literature of sacred defense the main subject of the work, it actually marginalizes it and puts the daily life of the sixties at the center of narrative: A life that reminds of lovely and unique memories, music, clothes and special games and shows that people were engaged in a certain lifestyle and entertainment that is interesting for the new generation. Cardamom candy narrates the war in a way that confirms life is mixed with comedy and represented. This makes this novel show the power of cultural hegemony.
Methodology
In this research, the components of cultural hegemony in the novel Cardamom candy, which has been published more than 40 times, will be analyzed in order to clarify how the characteristics of popular literature have had a profound effect on the popularity of this work and what factors have made this novel a become one of the most popular fiction works of the 1390's in Iran. Then by criticizing this work based on Stuart Hall's theories, what hidden concepts will be revealed. So far, no research has been done on the criticism of popular novels from the perspective of cultural studies. For this reason, considering these researches, this article will present new contest.
Conclusion
According to the criticism of this novel based on Stuart Hall's theories, it can be deciphered from three perspectives. He considers three hypothetical positions for decoding the text and calls the first position "The domination hegemonic position", the second position "The modified position", and the third position "The oppositeness coders". Based on the first position, this work wants to show the life situation of the Iranian people in the sixties and at the height of the war in favorable and ideal conditions that despite having various economic and social problems and they have overcome the pressure of the war. The second level of text analysis, based on Hall's theories, is called modified position, which is the majority approach in reading the text, it is a mixture of opposing and coordinated elements in the text, which always confirms and legitimates the dominant hegemony in the text. Based on the modified position in this novel, the people have only relied on their own ability in war conditions and despite all their bravery and patience; the government is not trying to solve their problems. In the third position of reading the text, the critic can discover all the hidden codes of the text and realizes what meaning the author (text producer) wanted to convey to his audience, but deliberately does not accept the meaning intended by the author and presents a different meaning from the text. He shows that had a different inference from text. At this stage, the text of this novel prevents the audience from criticizing the existing conditions and the concept is induced that the bitter realities of the war have not been shown with a realistic point of view. Whenever war adventures are mentioned in this novel, only its beautiful and memorable images are visualized for the audience and the critical points of the story are reduced by using comedy. Cardamom candy should not be considered as an example of a war novel, it softens the society's view of war.
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