The Role of Ideology in the Production and Selection of Conceptual Metaphors of Death in Poems of Ahmad Shamloo and Fereydoon Tavallali Based on the Discourse Theory of Metaphor

In the present article, the writer tries to investigate poems of contemporary poets such as Ahmad Shamloo and Fereydoon Tavallali regarding the effects of different ideologies of these two poets on the construction of conceptual metaphors of death. The goal of writer in selection of these two poets in present research is that they lived in the same social world and in the same period. The political, social and cultural worlds of the two poets are alike, but their worldview and ideology are different. The main questions are: Do the different ideologies of poets effect on the production of conceptual metaphors of death? To which semantic fields do source domains of conceptual metaphors of death in poems of poets belong?
Theoretical Framework: Cognitive semantics therefore conceals a dimension of metaphor that is revealed by critical metaphor analysis; this is the way that metaphor selection in particular types of discourse is governed by the rhetorical aim of persuasion. In many cases, therefore, metaphor choice is motivated by ideology. The same notions could have been communicated using a different metaphor had the ideology been different and the same metaphors can also be employed in different ways according to ideological perspective. Since situational context plays such a dominant role in metaphor, a semantic view of metaphor must always be complemented by a pragmatic one.’ This perspective does not exclude neither cognitive nor semantic views of metaphor, but it does claim that metaphor choices may be governed by cognitive, semantic, and pragmatic considerations and by ideological, cultural and historical ones. The discourse theory of metaphor claims that both individual and social resources influence metaphor choice in discourse. Individual resources can be sub-divided into three components: our thoughts, feelings and bodily experiences of the world; our understanding of what will be effective in particular contexts of use; and our knowledge of the linguistic system – of lexical fields and the various word senses that are available. The social bases for metaphor choice are ideological outlook – primarily political or religious viewpoint – and historical and cultural knowledge.
Methodology The research methodology is based on correlation between ideology as a social variable and metaphor as a semantic variable. The writer tries to investigate the relationship between ideology and conceptual metaphors of death based on discourse theory of metaphor in order to determine the degree of effects of ideology on the choice of metaphor. The research corpus includes all poems of Ahmad Shamloo and Fereydoon Tavallali. Poems of Shamloo and Tavallali include 17 and 6 collections of poetry, respectively.
The results of research indicate that the majority of conceptual metaphors of death in poems of Shamloo is related to nature, family, and music. The life situations of Shamloo can be displayed based on three global ones: when Shamloo as a young man entered the social world, he has chosen the policy of fighting and Jihad against wrongdoing rulers of Pahlavi and he always called his co-fighters for the battle. So, in this situation which is represented in collections of poetry such as irons and feeling, resolution, Ayda in mirror and Ayda, tree, dagger and memory, Shamloo portrayed immortality of death in most cases and he believed that death in the way of ideology is the most beautiful one. The second situation has happened in this way that Shamloo has lost his helpers in the way of fighting and he suffers from cowardice of people. Such a situation in the life of the poet has resulted in the formation of conceptual metaphor including death as an awesome expectation that Shamloo wishes to embrace like a woman. However, the third situation appears after these frustrations and when Shamloo seeks to resort to his love (Ayda). This lovely situation in the life of Shamloo results in the formation of conceptual metaphors including Death as a husband of love, Death as a sister of love and Death and Love as a king; and the dark symphony of jasmines and cedars results in mixing of sorrow and pleasure.
However, the third situation has appeared after this frustration and seeking refuge of Shamloo toward love (Ayda). Such a lovely situation in the life of the poet has resulted in formation of conceptual metaphors including Death as a husband of love, Death as a sister of love and Death and Love as a king which dark symphony of jasmines and cedars has resulted in mixing of sorrow and pleasure. Source domains of conceptual metaphors in poetic collections of Tvallali including semantic fields of wild animals such as black torpedo, hungry torpedo, snake, black monster, owl, leopard, semantic fields of demon such as demon, devil, and also semantic fields of nature such as the elusive wave of mortality, haste and defeat valley, silent plains and cavern indicate that Tavallali has been affected by Baudelaire’s thought, and black and emotionally oriented romanticism.
Research data indicate that the role of pragmatic factors in the production and selection of metaphor in poems of Shamloo is prominent. However, about emotive function in the production and selection of conceptual metaphors of death, it can be said that streaks of emotions and feelings in poems of Shamloo play an important role in the production of conceptual metaphors of death. The writer has not observed the effects of emotions and feelings of Tavallali in the production of conceptual metaphors of death. Therefore, the results of research indicate that ideology plays an important role in the production and selection of metaphors in literary texts and also individual resources such as cognitive and affective, pragmatic and linguistic factors play important roles, too.