Ebtehaj in the Shadow of Shahriar's Lyric Poems (A Functional Linguistic Approach to the Influence of Shahriar’s Sonnets on Hooshang Ebtehaj’s Sonnets)

A deep understanding of literary texts strongly depends on understanding the factors that contributed to their creation. One of these factors is how an author is inspired by the intellectual poetics of other literary figures. The present study seeks to use a functional linguistic framework to investigate the influence of Shahriar’s language and mind on Hooshang Ebtehaj’s ghazals and closely analyze the latter’s tendency towards Shahriar’s poetic style. These influences can be divided into three types: imitative (based on repetition), combined (based on repetition and intra-process change), and interpretative (based on repetition and extra-process change). Our findings suggest that Ebtehaj tends towards change and creativity instead of mere imitation. The factors contributing to Ebtehaj’s inspiration from Shahriar’s poetics include his love of Shahriar and his works, the popularity of Shahriar’s works, and the role of audience as well as the historical context.