A Psychoanalytic Study of the Novel 'Golnar and the Mirror'

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

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Department of Persian Language &Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Persian Gulf University, Busheher, Iran

10.29252/kavosh.2025.22107.3618

Abstract

"Golnar and the mirror" is a novel by Mohammad Azam Rahnavard Zaryab, a famous Afghan writer. This narrative is focused on the mental transformation of "Rababe", a dancer girl from Kabul, whose ancestry goes back six generations to "Golnar", a ritual dancer in the court of a Maharaja. Golnar once, in an amazing act, competed with her own image in the mirror and gained amazing strength by winning over it. Rababah - who changes her name to Golnar at the end of the novel - also hopes for overcoming her image in the mirror. So, the main theme of the novel – as a keyword for understanding its deep meanings- is considering the mirror’s image as "other" and competing with her. Jacques Lacan, a post-Freudian psychoanalyst, paid a lot of attention to the role of "other" in forming the "subject". ‘Mirror Stage’ is an important part of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He considers the mirror’s image to be not the person, but an illusion that shows him/her the boundaries of the human existence and the presence of "another". This research has analyzed the novel "Golnar and the Mirror" in a descriptive-analytical way by applying a psychoanalytic criticism approch. It has studied the meaning of Golnar's competition with the "other" in the mirror, as well as the mental evolution of "Rababe" and his attempt to transform into Golnar. The result shows that both Golnar and Rababe fought against the "other" in two different ways and succeeded in finding the true identity of "themselves".

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Journal of Kavoshnameh in Persian Language and Literature

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 20 April 2025

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