A Cognitive and Cultural Semantic Study of Shazdeh Ehtejab, The Gypsy by the Fire, Perfume, and One Hundred Years of Solitude

Adopting a cognitive semantics and cultural linguistics approach, this study examines the conceptual metaphors of smell in the conceptualization of memory and identity across four contemporary novels: Prince Ehtejab (Golshiri, 1968), The Gypsy by the Fire (Dowlatabadi, 1987), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Süskind, 1985), and One Hundred Years of Solitude (Márquez, 1967). The study adopts a mixed quantitative-qualitative design: in the quantitative phase, 216 instances of olfactory metaphor were identified using the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP), and their frequencies were calculated; in the qualitative phase, conceptual mappings, cultural schemas, and literary contexts were analyzed. The findings show that 58% of the instances conceptualize memory and 42% conceptualize identity. The source domains of EARTH/SPACE (27%) and SMOKE/DECAY (22%) predominate in the Persian-original works, while BODY/SKIN (31%) and SPICE/FRAGRANCE (28%) predominate in the translated works. Statistically significant differences (p < .001) between the two groups indicate that the Persian-original works generate mappings centered on the collective-historical, whereas the translated works generate mappings centered on the individual-existential. This divergent pattern provides preliminary evidence for the possible influence of literary globalization on the evolution of the Persian conceptual system, warranting further investigation in larger corpora.