Nima Yushij Research Articles

Dialogue form in the structure of Nima Yushij’s poem “Maneli” (1947)

Dialogue form in the structure of Nima Yushij’s poem “Maneli” (1947)

GHAZAL GENRE IN NIMA YUSHIJ’S POETICS

The article introduces the classical ghazals in the poetry of Nimá Yushíj (1897–1960) that were previously unexamined in Russian and Western Iranian Studies, and that provided an impetus for the development of this traditional genre in the contemporary Persian literature. Analysis of the canonic language signs of medieval lyrics by the “father of Iranian new poetry’s” sheds light upon the transformation of the author’s self-awareness in line with the original artistic manner. Conventional images and stable motifs of love lyrics, which have absorbed traditional mystical and allegorical connotations, are uniquely refracted in Nima Yushij’s ghazals. The semiotic and structural aspect of research along with the methods of historical poetics reveals the polysemanticism of classical motifs. The multi-stratified text structure turns out to be a tool for the poet to allegorically present his artistic view. In accordance with his intentions, Nima applies both the normative components of the formal plan (e. g., husn at-taxallus) and the execution methods that are not typical for the classical canon (frame text). To sum up, semantic and formal wholeness of Nima’s ghazals is observed.

The Genesis of the Phoenix Image in Persian Poetry and its Interpretation in a Poem of the Same Name by Nima Yushij (1897-1960)

The article deals with the matter of Phoenix image’s genesis in Persian classic literature and its interpretation in Nima Yushij’s poem ‘Phoenix’ written in 1938 and known as one the most noteworthy poem of the author. The research is aimed at analysis of Phoenix’s significant components which are rooted in mythology and determine a reader’s perception of this image in modern period. The methodology of the research is based upon the genetic-historical and comparative study and concerns various texts which were considered in a chronologic order and depict the figure of Phoenix, either European sources or Persian Classic Epics like ‘Garšāsp-nāma’, ‘Iskandar-nāma’ and ‘Mantiq at-tayr’ especially. The research revealed that Phoenix’s resurrection after the self-immolation, that is a common treat in different cultures, and its musical abilities with loneliness, that can be regarded as specific features of its Persian counterpart, imply a poet-prophet cognitive concept in Nima Yushij’s poem. The results shed light on the way that ‘the father of New Poetry in Iran’ managed to inspire his followers who adopted his poetic manner.

Nima Yushij's Phoenix: From Romanticism to the First Modern Persian Poetry

The beginning of twentieth century is marked by the Constitutional Revolution in Iran. Alongside the revolution, sweeping changes were brought about in every aspects of Iranian society. Undeniably, these extensive changes affected the literature of time. With respect to Persian poetry, Nima Yushij stamped a new pattern on Persian poetry and released it from its long-standing tradition. The plausible reason explaining Yushij's innovation has remained an enigma for literary scholars. Nonetheless, Yushij's attachment to Romanticism can be analyzed to clarify the ambiguous realm behind Yushij's big step for the modernization of Persian poetry. As such, Morse Peckham's theory of Romanticism which is subdivided into four consecutive stages is recruited to encapsulate Yushij's progress in Romanticism. Studying Yushij with respect to these stages proves that Yushij's Phoenix previously dismissed as a romantic poem is indeed Yushij's culmination of Romanticism. Eventually, this is concluded that Yushij reaching the pinnacle of Romanticism in Phoenix has been a decisive factor in creating a new path for Persian poetry.

Preternatural Landscapes in Hardy’s Darkling Thrush and Yushij’s It is Night

This piece of research studies Thomas Hardy’s “Darkling Thrush” and Nima Yushij’s “It is Night” and highlights some of the avant-garde strategies these writers have used in their poems. It analyzes these works’ diction and figurative and symbolic language which are used as devices to elucidate and depict the speakers’ subjective states through natural landscapes. Through utilizing a comparative approach the paper examines the similarities between two poems to suggest that Nima Yushij’s familiarity with the symbolist trends and innovative approaches of Thomas Hardy, inspired him to model his Modernist Movement in Persian poetry after Hardy’s style.

Essays on Nima Yushij: Animating Modernism in Persian Poetry

Essays on Nima Yushij: Animating Modernism in Persian Poetry

A Comparative Study of Nostalgia in the Poetry of Abdel Muti Hijazi and Nima Yushij

Nostalgia is one of the known subjects in psychology which is in direct relation with memory and recollection. Nostalgia is a longing for good old days and a comparison between past and present. That is why longing for and remembering the past would cause sorrow and grief. What causes sorrow in human beings is their separation from their ideal place, their social, political and cultural situation and in general their undesirable current conditions in life. It can be said that this unconscious behavior is a common feeling among the human beings. The nostalgia is one of the most significant subjects in modern Persian and Arabic poetry. Nima Yushij and Abdel Muti Hijazi are two of those poets that repeatedly utilized the theme of longing for blissful days of the past and remembering them in their poems. Their situation in life, keen intellect and sentiment and their familiarity with many poets and scholars are the motivation that aroused this strong feeling of nostalgia. This study accordingly to study the sources for the theme of sorrow and longing for the past in the poetry of these two we known poets.

Following the Trace of Byronic Hero in Yushij's Afsaneh

Romanticism broke the hierarchical chain of thought permeated into the society of human being and indeed initiated a new and unprecedented process of thought. Morse Peckham has coined the term dynamic organicism and static mechanism to describe and distinguish between these two ways of thoughts. Considering dynamic organicism as the prominent way of thought in romantic era, he subcategorized it into positive and negative romanticism to better illustrates the works of different romantic writers. As a result, he considers the concept of Byronic hero as the way of symbolizing the state of negative romanticism. In a parallel way the concept of Byronic hero can be explored through Nima Yushij's Afsaneh in the context of Persian modern poetry. In this case, Nima Yushij, the father of modern Persian poetry, is believed to have changed the long-establishing way of thinking about poetry by bringing about the same shift of thought as the romantics did. Finally, an attempt is made to prove that Nima's two characters, the lover and Afsaneh, in Afsaneh conveys the same concept of romantic's Byronic hero and spirit respectively.

Negative Romanticism: An Exploration of a Sense of Isolation in Yushij's <i>Afsaneh</i>

From its beginning in the academic studies during the later nineteenth century, Romanticism has provoked ongoing debates over the nature of its definition. Nonetheless Morse Peckham has satisfactorily settled this matter by indicating that romanticism has dramatically altered the way of thinking therefore it should be distinctively met. For this purpose, he proposed that dealing with the concept of romanticism necessitate dividing it into two concepts of negative and positive romanticism in which a transition is occurred from negative romanticism to positive romanticism however in some cases this transition may not become completed and is lead to the obscure origin of the sense of isolation among various romantic poets. To clearly illustrate Peckham's notion of negative romanticism, it is tried to explore Nima Yushij's Afsaneh who is known to be the most romantic poet of Persian literature. Based upon Peckham's notion of negative romanticism, Nima's sense of despair and isolation in Afsaneh is fully justified and it is highly suggested that Peckham's new perspective toward romanticism can eventually settle the conflicting views on the subject of Romanticism.

Nima Yushij's "Afsaneh" as a Striking Exemplar of the 'Greater Romantic Lyric'

Persian poetry lingered upon the old classical Persian prosody for more than a thousand year that it stagnated and stopped flowering new concepts and forms. However, Nima broke the dull and monotonous routine of Persian poetry by writing the first true modernist poem. When Nima's "Afsaneh" appeared, traditionalist adamantly opposed its new artistic and aesthetic view due to revealing some similarity with great European romantic examples. The similarity can never be considered as a weak point of "Afsaneh" because Nima has masterfully used European romantic elements to refresh the long-standing tradition of Persian poetry. In this respect, Nima has written his poetry consciously or unconsciously in the same poetic style of great European romantic poets. M. H. Abrams has labeled this poetic style "the greater romantic lyric". As a result, it is tried to examine Nima's "Afsaneh" with respect to Abrams's definition of "the greater romantic lyric" so as to prove that Nima's "Afsaneh" closely conform to this new poetic genre.

Essays on Nima Yushij: animating modernism in Persian poetry

Through several groundbreaking critical articles on the question of poetic modernity in Persian new verse, this book focuses on the life and works of Nima Yushij (1887-1960), a major modernist Iranian poet. The articles situate Nima's life firmly within the context of early 20th century Iranian history. They are framed by a brief introduction in which the various contributions are related to each other and to various trends in poetic modernism in the Persian language, and a bibliography that lists all of Nima's works and the major studies of his life and work, both in Persian and in various Western languages. The book fills a gap in the history of Persian literature that has long endured due to the resistance of such a tradition-bound culture to the modernization of its poetry.

Modernism and Ideology in Persian Literature: A Return to Nature in the Poetry of Nima Yushij, Majid Naficy, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1997, 144 pp., $27.50

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フオルーグ・フアッロフザードの詩的空間とイメージの諸相

Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-67) was a famous modern Iranian poet who expressed her feelings and described her experiences in feminine voice. It is more notable, however, that she is one of the poets who founded modern Iranian poetry, succeeding Nima Yushij (1895-1960).Indeed, concerning most of her works written in the first, second, and third collection, she obeyed and restricted herself to the traditional forms and language, and these poems are uncomplete and immature. It was through the relationship with the cinematographer and controversial writer Ebrahim Golestan (b. 1922) that she began to develop her poetry, thoughts, and knowledge. In 1964, she published the fourth collection “Another Birth (Tavallod-i Digar)”, whose title shows her own ‘rebirth’ as a poet. In this collection, she tried to produce a new rhythm, style, and poetic language, beyond the various rules of Persian traditional poetry, and she succeeded in creating her unique poetic images which make up her poetry.Her attempt to write poems not according to forms but to content, especially in terms of poetic language, has had a great influence on many contemporary poets. In regard to images, Forugh made familiar words, for example ‘window’ ‘garden’ ‘home’ ‘hand’, universal images in her poetry, while she adopted some abstract words like ‘line’ and ‘volume’. Through her poetry, which is composed of various images, Forugh observed and described the real world, and she attempted to communicate in her poetry that she always tried to find the truth and make verses for her readers.

Poetic signs, critical frames: Nima Yushij as a theoretician of poetry

(1994). Poetic signs, critical frames: Nima Yushij as a theoretician of poetry. Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies: Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 35-50.

Ahmad Shamlu: The Rebel Poet in Search of an Audience

Ahmad Shamlu is the primary, most prolific and most popular engagé Persian poet of post-Mosaddeq Iran. While critics in general view Shamlu's poetry as a mirror reflecting the stages of modernist Persian poetics from Nima Yushij (1895-1960) onward, Reza Baraheni has also described it as "a biography of our society." As a sociological study of this very important Iranian writer, this essay provides a chronology and analysis of Shamlu's relationship with his reading public and "the people," an overview of the nature of modernist engagé Persian poetry in general, and an assessment of the influence the "committed" poet has been able to exercise on Iranian society during the past three decades, in" particular.