Mystic Symbolism in the Fazel Nazari’s Poetic

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Razi University، Kermanshah،Iran

2 Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, Razi University ،Kermanshah، Iran

3 ph.d buale university

Abstract

Symbolism is a major trend in contemporary Iranian poetry. Knowledge of a poet’s literary identity provides valuable insights into his or her style. Decoding the symbols in a poem could shed light on the poet’s mental semantic network. Symbolism has manifested itself in mystic and spiritual contexts in the works of some post-Revolution poets. Fazel Nazari is an Iranian poet who gained considerable popularity in the 2000s. His poems are imbued with mystic, moral, and social ideas and the only poetic form in his works is ghazal. As other modern ghazal-composers, he uses colloquial tone and revitalizes archaic words, expressions, and symbols but his works are ideologically different from the neoclassical tradition. He tries to convey spiritual ideas and stimulate the audience to search for the truth in an innovative, artistic manner. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: Does Nazari make extensive use of symbolism in his poems? What is the thematic orientation of his symbolic language? What are the hackneyed, innovative, and other types of mystic symbols in his works? And how does symbolism evolve in his books Gerye-haaye Emperaatoor (The Emperor’s Tears), Aghaliyyat (Minority), Aanha (They), Zed (Against), and Ketaab (Book). Our findings suggest that he makes use of official Sufi symbols (26%) and other symbolic words and expressions (74%). The symbols belong to several semantic domains including religion (32%), nature (26%), objects (15%), wine drinking (12%), animals (9%) and parts of body (6%). Symbolism is highest in "Zed" (22%) and lowest in "Ketaab" (18%).

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