سورن ستارزاده

Folk literature, including oral stories and folk poetry, are open narratives that each narrator uses according to his or her own intent. This genre, however, for reasons such as its humiliating title, the simplicity of the images, the use of the language of the masses, and elitism Persian literature, has not received much attention. In the constitutional period, however, with the change of the paradigm, of course, it was considered for political purposes and appeared as a rival discourse against the thousand-year-old discourse of classical literature. Folk literature was a constantly neglected "other" voice that found an unexpected opportunity to be heard in the new discourse. One of the poets who used this capacity to advance his political and ideological goals is Ahmad Shamloo. After Nima and perhaps more than him, Shamloo is the most prominent poet who has brought the realm of poetry into the public area in various ways; without neglecting the noble aspect of poetry. This approach is of course the result of his theory of literature, which considers it a social duty and commitment to justice and awakening the masses of people and raising children against oppression and injustice; therefore, by using the special codes of the mass people and children's legends, whether in the form of folklore poetry based on folk tales and legends or slang words and even compiling an Ketab e Koocheh, he has attempted to consolidate this ideology. This study, with the approach of cultural studies, reflects on the two contradictory sides of his metaphorical use of language and folk poetry: 1. Deconstructing the elitist approach to literature through defamiliarization with folk poetry, 2. Shamloo's use of children's language and discourse in folk poetry, which implies the sameness of the mass and the child and the need to be guided and led by a saviour.

The issue of the “subject” is the most important factor in the distinction between classical and modern literature. The word “I” is often general and abstract in classical literature, while in contemporary literature, following modern philosophy, it is an individualized and concrete “I” or, in other words, an active subject. Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of this paradigm shift - especially in poetry - can be seen in the type of encounter with the “subject”. Contemporary poetry, from its most superficial romantic facet to its most complex philosophical aspect, expresses a self-sufficient subject whose origin is human centrality. Ahmad Shamlou is one of the poets whose poetry subject is “I”. This research deals with the hermeneutics of “self/subject” in his poetry using qualitative content analysis and critical reading of the collection of Shamlou's poems along with selecting indicative examples. Since this “I/self/subject” has been subjected to turmoil and transformations during his six decades of writing poetry, the theoretical framework of the discussion is also based on these developments and deals with both the philosophical subject which emphasizes individual thought and consciousness and to a subject that is a social construct. Hence, the theoretical framework of the study is based on a triangulation of Michel Foucault’s discussions about the hermeneutics of the self and governing oneself and others; the theory of symbolic interactionism, which deals with the individual and social “self”; existentialism that focuses on freedom, choice, and responsibility; and ultimately Althusser’s perspective on the subject i.e., subject with s (small letter) and subject with S (capital letter). "I" in Shamlou's political poetry is an ideological pseudo-subject (subject) due to his attachment to the Toudeh party, whereas in his philosophical poetry, it is the result of knowledge and awareness based on his own lived experience, and reflection on existence, human, life, and death, as the supreme subject (Subject).