Critical Discourse Analysis of Houshang Ebtehaj’s Social Poems Based on Fairclough’s Theory (A Case Study of the Poem “Freedom”)

Abstract

Discourse analysis is a method used for analyzing various types of texts. Critical discourse analysis is a new approach in textual analysis that includes different perspectives and has been addressed by scholars such as Fairclough, Van Dijk, Laclau, and others. Attention to and emphasis on the manifestation of cultural structures and the reflection of social and cultural inequalities in language are the most important characteristics and common features of different approaches to critical discourse analysis. Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis approach is the most comprehensive approach within critical discourse analysis, through which various texts and discourses are examined at three levels: description, interpretation, and explanation. Houshang Ebtehaj is one of the committed poets of contemporary Iran who, through a political and social approach, expresses existing issues in society as well as his freedom-seeking and resistance-oriented ideals against the authoritarian Pahlavi government. This study attempts to examine Houshang Ebtehaj’s social poems, with an emphasis on the poem “Freedom,” based on the components of Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis.