Islamic Art Studies

Islamic Art Studies

The Influence of Political and Social Developments on the Definition of Self and Other in the Symbolic Poems and Paintings of Nima Yushij (Based on Bakhtin’s Theory)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mojtaba Shahbazi
Mohammadsadegh Tafazoli
Hojatollah Gh Moniri
Parvin Rezaei
Department of Persian Language and Literature, Borujard Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujard, Iran
10.22034/ias.2023.383057.2161
Abstract
In the Constitutional era, the expansion of cultural exchanges with European countries on one hand, and political and social transformations within society on the other, led to increased familiarity among Iranians with modern world literature. Consequently, Persian literature, especially poetry, underwent fundamental changes in both content and form. Although changes in themes and the introduction of new subjects such as womanhood, freedom, equality, and justice occurred in poetry even before Nima, the breaking of traditional poetic forms, the creation of new poetic currents, and the invention of modern or Nimaic poetry are attributed to Nima Yushij. Nima prioritizes universal human values and, through his symbolic language, centers dialogue in his poems, especially in his long poems such as “The House of Seriwili,” “The Soldier’s Family,” “Manli,” and “The Shepherd and the Staff.” Since Mikhail Bakhtin, the Russian thinker and theorist, was the first to propose the theory of polyphony and dialogism as opposed to monologism, this study aims to analyze and examine the impact of Iran’s political and social changes on the definition of “self and other” in the symbolic language of Nima’s poetry and paintings, relying on Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism.
Research Objectives:

To investigate the impact of political and social changes on the definition of “self and other” in the symbolic poems of Nima Yushij.
To examine the symbolic depiction in the paintings inspired by Nima Yushij’s poetry.

Research Questions:

How do political and social changes affect the definition of “self and other” in Nima Yushij’s poems?
How are Nima Yushij’s symbolic poems reflected in symbolic paintings?
Keywords
Nima
symbol
self
other
Bakhtin

Subjects

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