Reading Resistance in Shamlu's Poetry Based on Van Dijk's Critical Discourse Theory

Document Type : Persian Research Article

Authors

1 Ph.D Candidate, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Human Studies, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.

2 Seyyed Mahdai Rahimi, Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Human Studies, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Human Studies, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran.

Abstract

Shamlu is a poet who, in opposition to the political repression of the 1960s and 1970s in Iran, played an active role in reflecting and critiquing the existing state of affairs in response to the political climate and social crises of that era. He created works that served to elucidate, awaken, and recreate human ideals. The primary concern of the present study is to identify the idealistic components in Shamlu's poetry of the 1960s and to analyze how these ideals are represented within the discursive structure of his poems. To this end, the discourse analysis approach based on Van Dijk's theoretical model has been employed. The research method is descriptive-analytical, focusing on the primary texts of the poems. The findings of this study indicate that ideals such as freedom, justice, consciousness, homeland, and conscious death constitute the core elements of the discourse of resistance in Shamlu's poetry. From Van Dijk's perspective, Shamlu's poetry challenges the discourse of power at three levels: linguistic, semantic, and mythological. By employing metaphorical language, defamiliarization, and symbolism, Shamlu reflects ideals such as freedom, homeland, consciousness, justice, and conscious death, guiding the audience toward awareness and resistance, and transforming his poetic language into an expression of consciousness and historical steadfastness. These ideals are organized at the semantic level through ideological "us/them" polarizations and oppositions such as freedom/repression, silence/cry, and hope/despair; at the linguistic level, they are consolidated through metaphor, symbolism, and foregrounding of meaning, ultimately leading to the reproduction of the ideology of resistance against the dominant discourse.

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References

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History

  • Receive Date: 18 February 2026
  • Revise Date: 22 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 22 May 2026
  • Publish Date: 05 June 2026

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