Epic, Iranian Epic Writing and the Resistance and Epical Drama

Understanding epical thinking is in need of studying the genres so as its historical developments and its origins as well as more importantly its historical changes are made apparent. Epic is a unique phenomenon. It is an art and an expression that is able to revitalize the life of the human beings with the special and strange power that it has. Therefore not every event is regarded as epic. From a historical point of view epic is an applicable, correcting, humanitarian art and it is against all destruction and artificiality. Its great example is the classical Greek drama. The writer gives life to the ethics and gender on the stage so as he damns every incongruent deed and behavior of his time.
Contemporary drama creates the epical hero with a special delicacy and a superior technique but the bad and unacceptable aspects of the human life is not drawn so badly why? Is this ignorance is because of the contemporary human beings surrender against technology and it is merely a means of entertainment? Is complete ignorance of the ethical and spiritual values such as loyalty, self – sacrifice, generosity, resistance human love and the love of one’s family state the dominance of the consumption culture and inclination towards this culture? So if the real and original art is the antidote of the affliction with the daily affairs, why the valuable beauties and most importantly the epical point of view is not made outstanding in the modern arts? Why do meanings and concepts lose their importance; the meaningful concepts become meaningless concepts; the rules and principals as well as the main rules of old and traditional aestheticism in art are neglected?
Jean Francois Leotar, the great theorist of the artistic – philosophical movement of post – modernism, in describing this condition in his great and valuable book entitled "The Condition of Post Modernism: A Report on Knowledge”? says:
The contemporary world is indeed a predecessor in stating what is impossible and that which has lost its meanings. This world has a paradoxical world view and a negative point of view. The artists and the writer of this period which has to be called post modern consider themselves the arenas for philosophy. He considers his text, work and his artistic creativity devoid of any existing rules because his art should reject rules and forms; this means that the work of art is itself the rule and no more than that. Therefore creativity is equal to rule, norm and style.
Nowadays the post modernist point of view is emerging in most of the thinking areas as well as creativity areas such as economics, art, architecture, literature, film, theater, Television and music not only in the western world but also in the neighbor countries and now the main and the basic question is: Will the mere existence of such philosophical – artistic view and its acceptance be able to create the aestheticism and inner changes in the thoughts and societies of the human beings? Many of the modern critics believe that the modern art has created some changes in the outlook of the human beings and has caused some deviations in their ethical deeds. Accordingly the more human beings are distancing from ethical beauties and the traditional aesthetic point of view the more they help the negative aspects of the modern art. But the sublime art and the traditional human life are still extant although because of the existence of the mediacracy thinking – or in Boudreaux thinking, the expansion and the influence of the severe realism of the media – the spirit and the historical biting of the societies have been afflicted with disorders but this equation should be changed. This means that the valuable artistic traditions need to be defined and recognized again so that the vacuum and severity of the contemporary generation change in to valuable things such as epics.

Epic:
The studying of the changes, and alteration as well as completion of the epical thoughts show the stability of its basic elements in the time and in culture that has transferred from a generation to generation and only the making of the epics from oral tongue to the written form is what has changed. . . . . .
The definition of epic is not that much easy because it should contain all its perfect forms such as poetry, drama and novel as well as cinema. The first comparative definition of the epic was give by Aristotle:

The similarity that epic has with tragedy is that it is a kind of imitation in terms of verse. It s about the behaviors and the lives of the great people in serious language; it is different from tragedy in that it has a unique meter; it method of expression is through narration unlike tragedy; it is not action . . . . . . . while epic is not limited to time; the elements and the factors that are available in epic is the same as those that are available in tragedy.
From the time of Aristotle to the present time many definitions of epic have been given. John Coil Newman – one of the theorists of the epic – in his invaluable book entitled "the tradition classic epic”? give a comprehensive and good definition of epic; he considers epic from the point of view of the universal culture. It is a genre that is different from tragedy, comedy, novel and story. It is a long story, poem or narrative on a grand scale about an ideal hero who has taken part in a fateful, great and national fight and in this war arena with the enemy, his deeds, speeches and actions as well as character is narrated. Newman, further believes, that the language of epic has changed from that of poetry, drama and novel to that of the film; Eisenstein and Bedecking are the creators of the modern epic in the langue of the cinema.
On the other hand the famous writer and critic of the 20th C. of Russia, Mikhail Bakhtin, has a different and modern definition of the epic.
Bakhtin considers epic as an old phenomenon; it is regarded as an indefinable tradition in the modern world that has no relation with our experience. Why does Bakhtin follows such a pint of view? Because, he has a high regard for the dialogue. Bakhtin consider the epic a monologue; a monologue that is different from the polyphonic modern speaker. Still having all these points in consideration Bakhtin has no disagreement with the theorists who agree to have epic in the modern age with regard to its application in the in the modern world and culture. He is in agreement with his critics regarding the role of the six basic role of epic:
1. The plot of the epic is very simple; it is basically based on the common and folklore stories or on the historical and mythical stories.
2. The theme of the epic is based on the confrontation with the world, human and material problems.
3. The hero is a person who us superior to the human world on the national and world scale.
4. The style and the form of the epic is easy and its explanation is simple; it has a grand perspective.
5. The scene of the epic is great and it includes a country, the world or the universe.
6. The language of the epic is masterly full of the poetic and prosodic techniques.


Writer: Dr. Sayed Mostafa Mokhtabad
Source: Book "Lost notes" to try and change "Mohsen Babaee Rabii," and by the Revolution and Sacred Defense Theater Association and published