Document Type : Original Article
Author
Damghan University
Abstract
Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s theory of deconstruction, this article offers a multi-layered analysis of The Death of Naseri, a poem by Ahmad Shamlu. In this reading, poetic language is not regarded as a vehicle for fixing meaning, but as a medium of suspension, subversion, and slippage of signification. Relying on key concepts such as différance, the absence of a center, and the collapse of binary oppositions, the article demonstrates how meaning in the text is not stabilized but constantly deferred and reproduced. A discourse analysis of imperative grammatical structures such as “Hurry, Naseri!” and the interpretation of Naseri’s silence as a form of resistance are among the focal points of this study. Through its use of opposing symbols (“crown of thorns,” “red rope,” “proud swan”), the voice of the spectators, the passive agency of Lazarus, and a polyphonic discursive structure, Shamlu’s poem dismantles classical narrative and fixed dichotomies. In this context, the shifting of subject positions, the suspension of time, and the absence of speech lead to a renewed understanding of the relationship between language and power, meaning and identity. This analysis shows that The Death of Naseri is not merely a reflection of individual suffering but a discursive field for the redefinition of meaning in confrontation with violence, judgment, and erasure—a text that employs deconstruction not only as theory but as the very linguistic method of the poem itself.
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