Abstract
Prompting critical reflection on the common claim that flowers are always symbolic of female sexuality, the present article intends to explore symbolic roles of flowers in Persian literature and provide examples, mainly from Persian poetry, with the aim of refuting the claim. The writer, in fact, attempts to highlight overshadowed facets of flower symbolism by overshadowing carnal and ignoble readings of it. The reason why Persian literature has come into the focus of this study is that flowers have always had a prominent role in Iranian culture and Persian literature; however, those delving into flower symbolism have never paid due attention to the significance of flowers in Persian literature, otherwise they would have never placed undue emphasis on the sexuality of flowers.
Highlights
Prompting critical reflection on the common claim that flowers are always symbolic of female sexuality, the present article intends to explore symbolic roles of flowers in Persian literature and provide examples, mainly from Persian poetry, with the aim of refuting the claim
According to Arbit, flower symbols are categorized into positive and negative, suggesting the presence or absence of sexuality. She contends: Most negative symbolism uses a flower or enclosed garden to mean a lack of female sexuality—sexual innocence, virginity, and/or chastity, characteristics which describe the Western stereotype of the ideal woman, one with the appropriate degree of femininity
Female puberty, menstruation, first sexual experience, fertility, pregnancy, motherhood, and menopause can be described with floral terminology, from enclosed buds and ripe blossoms to mature plants and wilted flowers. (2010, p. 21). She embeds flower symbolism in a gender-biased structure run by binary oppositions such as negative/positive and lack/presence
Summary
In the second part of the thesis entitled Flower symbolism as female sexual metaphor (2010), the American artist Andrea Frownfelter, renamed Andrea Arbit, explores the way flower symbolism has been used historically, mythologically, and artistically Her fundamental position is that “flowers have always represented female sexuality throughout history, and in almost every area of the world, with the possible exception of Africa” She embeds flower symbolism in a gender-biased structure run by binary oppositions such as negative/positive and lack/presence. Such an approach derives from the fact that “every culture organizes its view of the world through pairs of opposites,” as the French anthropologist and structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) said I will offer my critical observations on the claims
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