The Study of Mohammed Taghi Bahar’s Poetry Based on Lucien Goldmann’s Genetic Structuralism Theory

In analyzing a literary work, there are three common approaches. The first approach concentrates on words, the second one on meaning, and the last one on text and meaning. Based on the followers of the third approach, the text is closely related to the content and socio-historical and cultural phenomena. This group has two branches. Influenced by positivism, the first branch holds that all literary works are the unmediated reaction of phenomena. The followers of the second branch like Lukacs and Goldmann believe in the mediation of literary works with the phenomena. According to the followers of the second branch, a literary critic can discover the writer’s or intermediator’s general via the close reading of the meaningful structure of a literary work’s (small) units. Given the lack of literary study about Mohammed Tagh Bahar’s worldview, the current study seeks to fill this research gap. It attempts to examine Mohammed Taghi Bahar’s worldview by reading his collected poetry through content analysis as well as library research. More precisely, the present study attempts to answer these three questions by analyzing his poetry. Firstly, what are the poet’s social class and intellectual orientation? Secondly, what is the poet’s general worldview? And thirdly, how is his worldview crystalized in his collected poetry? In answering these questions, the current study could discover his poetry’s internal structure and the poet’s worldview. According to this study’s findings, Mohammed Taghi Bahar holds a neoclassical worldview. Hence, he is introverted, realist, melancholic, and obliged by the norms of classical literature and Islamic sharia. Almost all of Bahar’s poetry has simple poetic diction which is understandable for the general readership and lacks emotions as well as beautiful innovative imagery, and finally, it has a low frequency of spiritual rhetoric to reflect his worldview