Motaleat-e-zaban-e-farsi

Motaleat-e-zaban-e-farsi

An Analysis of the Surrealist Elements of Imagination, Imagery, and Dramatic Scene Construction in the Poetry of Houshang Irani

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Latifeh Salamatbavil
Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/jmzf.2026.244613
Abstract

1. Introduction
Surrealism is one of the literary movements that, following Romanticism, has exerted the greatest influence on subsequent literary schools. Automatic writing constitutes one of the most explicit Surrealist techniques for expressing inner truths. The surrealist images produced through this technique are seemingly accidental and full of apparent contradictions; nevertheless, it may at times appear that such incompatibility, fragmentation, and contradiction possess limited aesthetic value.
Houshang Irani is among the poets who sought to create new meanings by fusing dream and reality, establishing unconventional relationships between words and expressions, departing from the ordinary functions of language, and employing unfamiliar sounds and phonetic patterns. Through these artistic strategies, he attempted to direct the reader’s mind toward a new realm of aesthetic perception.
According to Mohammad-Reza Shafi’i Kadkani, Irani was one of the “outstanding talents of prose poetry,” who “maintained direct contact with modern Western poetry for many years. The poetic atmosphere of his works resembles that of Western poets, reflecting philosophical dignity and a serious understanding of the nature of poetry and prose poetry” (Shafi’i Kadkani, 2002, p. 260).
Although Irani achieved a profound understanding of Western prose poetry, he was not entirely successful in adapting its underlying principles to the Iranian literary context. As Zarqani (2022, p. 416) observes, “the absence of conventional meaning, a distinctive poetic language, and a lack of attention to musicality constituted the principal foundations of his poetic project.”
The primary objective of the present study is to examine the power of image construction in Irani’s poetry, since imagery represents one of the most significant functions of poetic imagination. Specifically, the study addresses the following questions:
1. How are imagination, imagery, and dramatic scene construction manifested in the poetry of Houshang Irani?
2. In what ways does the poet employ abstract concepts and imaginative images to influence and engage the reader?

2. Methodology
The present study adopts a descriptive–analytical methodology. Following an introduction to Surrealism and its principal characteristics, the research analyzes the three major artistic elements of imagination, imagery, and dramatic scene construction in the poetry of Houshang Irani.

3. Discussion
Among the distinctive characteristics of Irani’s poetry are his use of pure sounds and phonetic expressions, syntactic displacements, unconventional word formation, meaningless poetic lines, prose poetry, the combination of metrical and non-metrical structures, and synesthesia. Collectively, these features demonstrate his close adherence to the principles of Surrealism (Langroudi, 1998, p. 376).
More than any other stylistic device, Irani relies on defamiliarization at the linguistic level, employing it to create entirely new poetic spaces. One of the defining features of his imagery is the use of unconventional similes, metaphors, and synesthetic expressions. In constructing surrealistic images, he deliberately employs rhetorical devices in ways that depart from their ordinary and expected functions.
The dramatic settings created in his poetry are founded upon imaginary, dreamlike, and unreal spaces. Among his works, the poem “Shadow” represents the finest example of dramatic scene construction and spatial imagination.

4. Conclusion
The Purple Scream (Jigh-e Banafsh) movement constitutes one of the significant modernist currents in contemporary Persian poetry. Through the creative power of imagination, Houshang Irani constructs an entirely new poetic universe, allowing reality to be redefined according to his own artistic vision. The nature of his imagination corresponds to what literary theory identifies as secondary imagination.
The surrealistic imagery, imaginative structures, and dramatic settings in his poetry continually surprise the reader. His poetic images are characterized by spontaneous imagination, psychic automatism, and highly unconventional similes and metaphors. His innovations in capturing extraordinary poetic moments, together with his rebellious use of seemingly delirious sounds and his extensive practice of defamiliarization in creating imaginative images, exerted a profound influence on the generations of poets who followed him.
Although Irani made full use of the expressive capacities of language to communicate his inner intellectual world, the radical nature of his innovations—because they did not evolve through the gradual and natural course of artistic development—has consistently left readers questioning and debating the acceptance of his poetic identity and literary achievement.


کتاب­شناسی
الف:کتاب‌ها
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ب: مقاله­ ها:
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  • Receive Date 28 April 2025
  • Revise Date 26 May 2025
  • Accept Date 07 August 2025