Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Persian language and Literature, Literature and Humanities, shiraz universiti, shiraz, Iran.g
2
Persian language and Literature, Literature and Humanities, shiraz university, shiraz. Iran.
10.30466/jispll.2025.56844.1045
Abstract
Metamorphosis denotes the supernatural alteration of physical form from one state into another, or the capacity to perform extraordinary acts without perceptible modification of external appearance. Functioning as a salient narrative mechanism within myth and folklore, metamorphosis encodes fundamental cultural conceptions regarding identity, agency, and transgression. Employing a descriptive–analytical methodology, this study investigates the typologies and structural configurations of female metamorphosis in the 19-volume corpus of Folklore of the People of Iran, with the objective of elucidating the narrative and cultural functions of transformation in Iranian folk tradition.
Building upon the taxonomy proposed in Metamorphosis in Mythology, the present research expands the analytical framework by systematically examining the agentive and causal dimensions of metamorphosis alongside its formal structure. This dual lens facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of the narrative organization of metamorphosis, as well as its symbolic capacity for articulating gendered subjectivities and socio-cultural norms.
The analysis of 1,168 narratives demonstrates that metamorphosis induced by external forces (123 cases), linear metamorphosis (134 cases), and animal-to-human transformation involving women (36 cases) exhibit the highest frequency among female-oriented metamorphic motifs. These findings underscore the prominence of transformation as both an aesthetic device and a semiotic system through which cultural anxieties, moral prescriptions, and ideologies of femininity are negotiated. In particular, female metamorphosis appears to function as a discursive strategy for representing vulnerability, desirability, empowerment, and social transgression, thereby reflecting broader tensions embedded within collective memory and oral tradition.
Overall, the study posits that metamorphosis in Iranian folk narratives operates as a complex cultural technology—simultaneously reproducing and contesting dominant conceptions of gender—and that its recurrent association with women constitutes a significant site for examining the intersection of folklore, mythology, and gender studies.
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