Societies in Persian literature

Societies in Persian literature

An Examination of the Narrative Style of Nafthat al-Masdur in Relation to Power and History with a Focus on Foucault’s Discourse Analysis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Roshanak zolfeqari 1
Mohammad-Amir Obaydinia 2
1 PhD Student in Persian Language and Literature, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
2 Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
10.30488/sipl.2026.558219.1110
Abstract
This article examines the narrative style of Nafthat al-Masdur in relation to the concepts of power and history, drawing on Michel Foucault’s theoretical framework in discourse analysis. Nafthat al-Masdur by Kharandezi Zaidari Nasavi, written in the context of the fall of the Khwarazmshahian and the Mongol conquest, is a historical narrative and a text full of ideological tensions, personal suffering, and a complex representation of hegemonic power relations. As a historical discourse, this work, at its heart, reflects historical and Islamic-Iranian events and also brings to the reader the production and reproduction of meanings surrounding power, legitimacy, and social order. From Foucault’s perspective, history is not just memory but a stage in the struggle for power, and historical narratives are the means by which the field, subjects, institutions, and structures are redefined. This article shows how the author of Nafthat al-Masdur, with his specific language and narrative structures, not only helps to record a political crisis, but also participates in a discourse of power; a discourse in which words, silence, and the way events are represented carry hidden meanings and political implications
Keywords
Discourse analysis Michel Foucault Nafthat al
Masdur Narrative Style Power
Subjects
-        Foucault, M. (1970). The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York: Pantheon Books.
-        Foucault, M. (1972). The Archaeology of Knowledge. New York: Pantheon Books.
-        Foucault, M. (1978). The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction. New York: Pantheon Books.