Social Criticism of the Novel, Raei’s Lost Lamb (Houshang Gholshiri( and the Poem Haffar al-Ghobour (Badr Shaker al-Siyab)

The social critique of literature, which concerns with the literary works is the superstructure and the product of material infrastructure which considers the creative reflection of social reality as the distinguishing feature of literary work. Houshang Gholshiri, Iranian writer dedicated to Toudeh Party, as well as Badr Shaker al-Siyab, young Iraqi poet with tendencies towards the Communist party, have got numerous works that deserve to be investigated from the analytical lens of literary social criticism. First, we shall dedicate some space to a brief overview of social criticism of literature. Then, based upon the Russian comparative school and descriptive-analytical methodology, we shall embark upon analyzing Gholshiri's novel Raei’s Lost Lamb and Al-Sayab's poem "Haffar al-ghobour" from the perspective of literary social criticism. The results indicate that the author and the poet, regardless of the time-space distance and despite differences in personal views and tastes, due to the experience of the same conditions, rely on awakening and class awareness as solutions to the problems that have been proposed. Golshiri also uses the carnavalistic conversation and Siyab, relying on the different layers of modern poetry, in addition to criticizing the capitalist system and its manifestations; Colonialism and exploitation, for example, have caused the problems such as war, individual-social crises, poverty in the lower classes, and the internal tyranny of governments that have kept writers from promising bright futures.