Literary Language Research Journal

Allegory as a Strategy for Meaning-Making in the Songs of Abdoljabbar Kakaei

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

seyed mahdi mousavi mirkalaei 1
ali balaghi inalou 2

1 Faculty member and director of the Persian Language and Literature Department, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Faculty Member and of the Faculty of persian Literature and Languag, Teachers University, Tehran, Iran

10.22054/jrll.2026.92619.1249
Abstract
This research aims to identify allegory as a structural strategy of meaning-making in the songs of Abdoljabbar Kakaei and to present a systematic typology of it. Using a descriptive-analytical method with a rhetorical-semantic approach, twenty songs by this poet are examined. The theoretical framework is based on the distinction between allegory, metaphor, and simile, and on Fletcher's and Lakoff's theories of structural duality and embodied cognition. The findings show that allegory in Kakaei's works appears in four main types: psychological-emotional allegory (representation of inner states), situational-social allegory (critique of social reality), ritual allegory (use of religious elements), and extended narrative allegory (construction of independent narratives). Allegory in these songs has three structural functions: delaying meaning and avoiding explicitness, creating multi-layered signification, and generalizing experience. The innovation of this research lies in identifying allegory as the foundation of meaning-making in contemporary song lyrics and presenting a analytical model for its analysis. The results show that Kakaei, through the compression of allegory and reliance on lived experience, presents a model for contemporary songwriting in which meaning is produced through the construction of allegorical situations.

Keywords

Allegory
Abdul Jabbar Kakaei
contemporary song
semantics
typology
literary language
Literary Language Research Journal

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 08 November 2026

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