A Critique of “The Imagist Historian or Formalist Poet”
Subject Areas : Literary Criticism and Theory
Mehrdad Zarei
1
,
moslem ahmadi
2
1 - Ph.D. Student of Persian Language and Literature, University of Kharazmi, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Officers' University of Imam Ali, Iran.
Keywords: book criticism, the Imagist historian or formalist poet, M. Sereshk, misinterpretations, critical analysis.,
Abstract :
Mohammad Reza Shafi'i Kadkani is one of the prominent poets of contemporary literature who has numerous research works in various fields of literature and mysticism. One of Shafi'i Kadkani's multifaceted personalities is a poet who has a significant place in contemporary Persian poetry. Shafi'i is a thinker and Poetologist, and these two characteristics have given his poetry richness of form and content, which has turned it into an interesting subject for the study of various dimensions. The latest book written in the field of Shafi'i Kadkani's poetry is “The Imagist Historian or formalist poet”. Despite the efforts of the author of this book to present a new reading of Shafi'i's poems, his authorship has serious flaws. In the following article, with the method of critical analysis, the problems of this book are discussed in four categories: "ambiguous interpretations", "wrong statements", "misunderstandings and incorrect interpretations" and "unhelpful explanations". In the end, it is clear that the lack of scientific obsession in writing the content and the author's misunderstanding of the signs in Shafi'i's poems have caused significant mistakes to be seen in the text of the book.
Keywords: book criticism, the Imagist historian or formalist poet, M. Sereshk, misinterpretations, critical analysis.
Introduction
One of the oldest indigenous knowledge of Iran has been the research in the field of poetry and literature, which was mainly limited to a few specific parts, but today intellectual developments have opened new horizons for literary researchers and the scope of research in this field has become wider. With the pathologists of literary research, it can be understood that not being familiar with the principles of research, haste, and lack of scientific obsession have caused a significant part of these researches to not have correct and efficient results. The book of the Tarikhnegāre Tasvirgārā yā Shāere formalist (the Imagist historian or formalist poet) is one of those studies where the author did not use the necessary seriousness and scientific obsession in compiling its contents, and for this reason, significant mistakes are visible in its text. In this article, this book has been criticized for the method of critical analysis.
Research Background
The book in question has already been criticized in the article "A Methodological Critique of “The Imagist Historian or Formalist Poet”", which only criticized the book's research method. This article has carefully examined the three approaches used in the book. According to the results of this research, the author of the book in question made mistakes in using all three main approaches of the work and did not have a complete and correct understanding of the methods he used. The following article is a kind of continuation of the mentioned article, and It deals with the content of the book.
Theoretical framework
The method used in this article is "critical analysis". Critical analysis is a detailed examination and evaluation of the ideas or findings of a text, which is done by analyzing and validating its different parts. The truth or falsity of the propositions put forward by researchers can only be determined by their critical evaluation.
Data Analysis
“The Imagist Historian or Formalist Poet” is a 420-page book in which the author intends to present a historical-sociological critique of the poems of Mohammad Reza Shafi'i Kadkani. In addition to these two approaches, the author devotes a chapter to a discussion of the theory of Russian formalism and also deals with the formalist critique of Shafi'i Kadkani's poems. One of the problems that can be seen in this book in many cases is the existence of ambiguous interpretations and combinations. In some cases, Aali Abbas Abad has used interpretations that he did not provide a specific definition or explain, and it is difficult to understand its meaning from the context of the words; Things like "specific space", "tone", "specific linguistic tools", "internal sociology", "monophonic dialogue", etc. also, in the text of the book, there are sentences that do not seem correct and are unprovable in some cases. The volume of these sentences in the work is impressive. Another problem of the book is the author's wrong interpretations of Shafi'i's poetry and his incorrect interpretations of them. It seems that Aali Abbas Abad did not have a correct understanding of the signs in Shafi'i's poems, and for this reason, in addition to being misunderstood in some cases; he also presented incorrect interpretations of Shafi'i's poems. Although, after the emergence of contemporary "reader-centered" theories, it is now accepted that the path of interpretation in poetry is open, the value and importance of any interpretation is conditional on its degree of adaptability to the requirements and structural system of the text. What Aali has presented does not conform to the signs and structure of the text. Another issue that is noticeable and tangible in the text of the book, especially in its third chapter, is the presence of repetitive content and additional explanations. When reviewing the poems, wherever he encountered a specific name or term, the author gave an extensive description of that name or term, citing various sources. This is while in most cases these explanations and information given do not help to interpret and understand the meaning of that poem.
Conclusion
In research, the more verifiable the data and information presented, the more credible and acceptable the research work will be to scientists. The presence of significant wrong statements in the Tarikhnegāre Tasvirgārā yā Shāere formalist shows the lack of scientific obsession and sufficient accuracy in this research. Interpreting poetry requires a thorough understanding of the poetics of poetry and the poet's worldview, a proper understanding of the symbols in the text, and ultimately, mastering the method of interpretation. This has not been done well in the book in question, and for this reason, the poet has misunderstood some of Shafi'i's poems and has also presented incorrect interpretations of his poems. If Aali Abbas Abad had gained a more accurate understanding of Shafi'i Kadkani's worldview by reading his poems more deeply, he would have been able to act more correctly in understanding the poems and their interpretation; because Shafi'i is a poet with a style and a worldview that is widespread in his poems, and can be achieved by reading his poems carefully. Finally, it should be said that although the respected author has criticized Reza's poems, he has not done so correctly.
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