حامد حبیب زاده

This article attempts to explore the influence of T. S. Eliot’s modernist poetics on the works of Iranian poets, Ahmad Shamlou and Sohrab Sepehri. It examines how these Iranian poets engaged with the concepts of “tradition,” “language,” and “myth” in their writings, drawing upon Eliot’s critical perspectives. The article begins with an overview of T. S. Eliot’s significance as an Anglo-American figure of twentieth century literature, and how his modernist themes and techniques resonated with Iranian poets navigating their own cultural transformations. It then reviews relevant secondary sources that provide critical frameworks for understanding the relationships between Eliot, Shamlou, Sepehri, and the broader modernist poetic tradition. The core discussion analyzes how Shamlou and Sepehri, inspired by Eliot’s innovative spirit, may have sought to redefine their engagement with Persian classical poetry. They utilized new approaches to language and expression to challenge established forms, especially through using defamiliarization and mythical method, while still drawing upon their rich literary heritage. By tracing these intertextual and cross-cultural connections, the article aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the transnational circulation of modernist poetic ideals, especially Eliot’s preoccupations, and how they were reinterpreted and reinvigorated within the Iranian literary context. In fact, this comparative analysis sheds light on the complexities of cultural exchange and the evolution of modern poetry across geographic boundaries.

A couple of decades before 9/11, after the collapse of USSR, Islam started to be culturally represented as the major “Other” in the West. 9/11 attacks accelerated the movement with the “culture talk” project positioning Islam as the backward culture against which the West and secularism are portrayed as the epitome of progressive liberal civilization/culture. Muslims, however, wrote back to the project. Literature, especially fiction, was found an appropriate media through which Muslims’ voice could be expressed. Robin Yassin Kassab’s The Road from Damascus is a true writing back attempt in order to respond to the hegemonic “othering” of Islam in the West. The narrative actualizes the purpose upending the constructed bifurcation of “the West” versus “Islam”. Being approached from a new perspective, both terms/signs are deconstructed in the novel so that the center/periphery opposition is reversed. In this new structure each term/sign is given new significances challenging the mainstream “imagined identities” of Muslims in the West.