A Lefebvrian Reading of Khaqani’s “Prison Poems”

Informed by Henri Lefebvre’s “Production of Space” theory, this study aims to explore Khaqani’s representation of prison in his “Prison Poems” in the light of the perceived, imagined, and lived space dialectics. This research adopts a descriptive-analytical approach and employs library sources. The results of this study show that in the perceived space, the poet, informed by phenomenological and critical perspectives, reinterprets the material space of the prison by confronting the veil and recognising the implicit mechanisms of power; in the imagined space, echoing the prescriptive knowledge of the discourse of power, the poet, as the subject, adopts a forced understanding of the space, which reveals the power and role of other groups in Khaqani’s imprisonment; in the lived space, the poet, echoing an implicit resistance against the discourse of power, employs his imagination and poeticity to create a different space within the realm of possibilities, which has no material correlation with the real prison but only adds a utopian meaning. This study concludes that the material space of the prison, the imprisoned poet as an active subject, and the discourse of power affect the ambience of Khaqani’s “Prison Poems.”