A Critical Look at The Enchanting Brush (Traditional Persian Story in the Trap of Narratological Fantasy)

Kalak-e Khayal-angiz, by Abolfazl Harri, is a work of literary criticism and theory concerned with the fantastic and the uncanny in literature. It examines topics including genre theory, fantasy and the fantastique, the uncanny in psychoanalysis and literature, and the poetics of the miraculous. The author applies Tzvetan Todorov's structural approach, drawn from The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, to a body of classical texts including Faraj ba'd az Shiddat, Haft Paykar, One Thousand and One Nights, the Aja'ib-namahs, and the stories of Surah al-Kahf. The source indicates the work has attracted critical scrutiny regarding its application of Western theory to these materials.