Indigenous Elements and Nativism in Akhavan’s Poetry

Abstract

This study examines the multilayered phenomenon of indigeneity in the poetry of Mehdi Akhavan Sales and demonstrates that his indigenous aesthetics extend far beyond local description or regional atmosphere. Through the deliberate use of archaic vocabulary, Khurasani linguistic patterns, mythic symbolism, and allegorical narratives, Akhavan constructs a poetic world in which “indigeneity” encompasses geography, history, collective memory, political experience, and ancient Iranian myth. An analysis of three major works—Winter, The Inscription, and The Stone City Tale—shows that indigeneity in his poetry manifests across four intertwined dimensions: linguistic, narrative, mythic, and ecological. Winter reveals the deep interconnection between climate and social condition by portraying coldness simultaneously as a geographical reality and a metaphor for political paralysis. The Inscription combines ancient Iranian myth, symbolic stone imagery, and historical determinism to reconstruct a culturally rooted allegory of collective fate. The Stone City Tale recreates a symbolic space in which a land burdened by historical stillness is imagined through local landscapes and myth-infused narrative forms. Overall, the findings highlight that indigeneity in Akhavan’s poetry functions not as a stylistic device but as a worldview that unites past and present, land and society, myth and lived experience. By revealing the semantic and semiotic mechanisms of this worldview, the study clarifies Akhavan’s role as one of the central identity-forming poets of modern Persian literature.