The Semiotic Analysis of the Poem «Arghavan«of Hushang Ebtehaj; A structuralist Approach

Among different methods of criticism applied in literary studies، structuralist semiotics is a method which seeks to decode the signs and the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between them and explore the structural cohesion of the text. Hushang Ebtehaj is one of the greatest contemporary poets، whose multivalent and vast perspective in poetry is indicative of his dynamic imagination. His poem “Arghavan” is replete with symbols and signs which have made it compatible with the era، effectively displaying the infelt motives of the poet while provoking the emotions of the readership. Heavily loaded with nostalgic imageries and complaint about the era، the signs in the poem “Arghavan” are socially enriched and move toward the poet’s main theme i. e. idealism. The present study mainly aims at the efficiency of structuralist semiotics as a method of literary criticism while focusing on Ebtehaj’s poem “Arghavan”.