Critical Discourse Analysis of Nasir Khusraw’s “Kazdom-e Gharbat” (Scorpion of Alienation) Based on Ruth Wodak’s Approach with an Emphasis on the Representation of Self and Other

The present study adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach to conduct a critical discourse analysis of Nasir Khusraw’s qasida, “Kazdom-e Gharbat” (The Scorpion of Alienation). Due to its conceptual richness, the presence of ideological oppositions, and identity construction, this poem serves as a suitable case study for explicating the discursive mechanisms within Nasir Khusraw’s didactic and social poetry. The theoretical framework of this research is grounded in Ruth Wodak’s discourse-historical approach, supplemented by Teun van Dijk’s components on ideological polarization, as well as Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model to link the text to its social context. In this study, the text of the qasida was segmented into semantic units, and discursive strategies—including nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivization, as well as intensification and mitigation—were examined. The findings indicate that “Kazdom-e Gharbat” constructs an identity-forming discourse through binary oppositions such as Self/Other, Truth/Falsehood, Knowledge/Ignorance, and Truth-seeking/Worldliness. Within this framework, the poet positions himself as a figure of truth-seeking and insight, while representing the ‘Other’ as a figure of delusion and spiritual decadence. The results demonstrate that in this qasida, language is not merely an aesthetic tool, but a site for establishing the poet’s ideological, moral, and social stance. This research underscores that critical discourse analysis can effectively reveal the latent layers of meaning-making and power dynamics in classical Persian poetry, providing a deeper understanding of the nexus between language, history, and thought.