Article
Article name The “Woman” Ghazal by Simin Behbahani
Authors Berezina A.V. Doctor PhD, Senior Lecturer, a.berezina@inno.mgimo.ru
Bibliographic description Berezina A. V. The “Woman” Ghazal by Simin Behbahani // Humanitarian Vector. 2018. Vol. 13, No.1. PP. 153–161.
Section ORIENTAL STUDIES
UDK 82
DOI
Article type
Annotation Simin Behbahani (1927–2014) is a world-famous Iranian poetess who was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. She was called the “Iranian lioness”, “national poet of Iran””, “Iranian poet” for the inflexibility of moral beliefs and the firmness of her social position. Having selected the ghazal as a dominant genre of her work, Simin was doomed to “inclusion in tradition” and adherence to the patriarchal canon. In critical literature, her poems are also called “ghazalvareh” (“ghazal-like”), the fact that characterizes the genre polyphony of her works. However, with the formation of individual style, Behbahani made the ghazal a part of the “women’s writing” and that helped her to become one of those rare masters of the word who through the author’s initiative contributed to the evolution of the literary canon. The wide thematic diversity, the manner of writing and the content aspect of the lyrics reveal the authorship of a sensitive, deeply empathic woman, who however is ready to fight for her civil rights. Heroes of her works are often women, and the author reveals their spiritual and moral characteristics in the space of social coordinates. In the late lyric of Simin, within the rigid structure of the ghazal, one can see material that meets all the criteria of “she’r-e now” (“new poetry”).The tools of feminist literary criticism were used as methodological basis of the work. During the study, all the poetic material of Simin Behbahani was analyzed, and the presented poems were translated from Persian to Russian for the first time by the author of this article. The research results may be useful to orientalists and literary critics and can be used in the implementation of training programs of philological disciplines.
Key words Simin Behbahani, feminist literary criticism, modern Persian literature, ghazal, femininity
Article information
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