Liminality in Sohrab Sepehri’s Poetry

In many of his poems, Sepehri speaks of entering and leaving personal worlds with specific abstract spaces; these poems narrate an inner journey, involving a transition (a gap/break) from the primary space (conventional human society) and presence in the secondary intuitive space - with the intention of perfecting the soul and comforting the soul - and then returning to the primary world. This group of Sepehri’s poems is reminiscent of the theories of ritual anthropology and - in particular - the perspective of liminality. The main issue of the present research has been a comparative analysis of similar poems in eight of Sepehri’s books from the perspective of liminality. This research is conducted using a descriptive and deductive content analysis method, and the following results are obtained: The three stages of rites of passage: pre-liminality (critical thinking and separation from the normal social space), liminality (desire to improve the position and understand a space higher than the existing-normal social order), and post-liminality (return to the initial balanced and normal state) can be traced and adapted in Sepehri's poetic discourse through a process consisting of four operational steps: gap, crisis, compensatory action, and coherence. Also, most of the characteristics considered for threshold (symbolic, formative, middle, prescriptive, ideological, suspenseful, and interconnected with mythology) are found in the ideal and transcendental space that Sohrab conceptualizes in his poetry.
 
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Echoing his notion of liminality, Victor Turner explores the epistemological enlightenment movement. The theory of liminality is an important concept in the sociology of religion, which introduces rituals as a process of transition from the stage of knowledge to a more transcendental and evolved stage of life. One of the main purposes of all mystic rituals is to realize a special union with the one source of existence, which is hermeneutically called dream, connection, intuition, selflessness, unconscious, inspiration, revelation, etc. This mystic sense, accompanied by non-material perceptions, necessitates a passage through the conventional but highly embellished gates of sense and matter, and a presence in an unconventional but more transcendental secondary space of non-materiality. In his poetry, Sohrab Sepehri addresses such concepts and notions. Informed by the theory of liminality, the present study investigates Sohrab Sepehri’s poetry.
2. Methodology
The present study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach and employs an inductive and deductive method to compare and contrast Sepehri’s poems. The main issue of the present research has been a comparative analysis of similar poems in eight of Sepehri’s books from the perspective of liminality.
3. Theoretical Framework
The three stages of rites of passage, according to Turner, are pre-liminality which is the critical thinking and separation from the normal social space; liminality, which is the desire to improve the position and understand a space higher than the normal social order; and post-liminality, which is the return to the initial balanced and normal state.
4. Discussion and Analysis
In Sepehri’s poetry, the pre-liminality stage is actualised through a gap, a hope, and a movement toward the desired place. In his poems, Sepehri characterises this ideal space in nostalgia related to the stage before the descent into the dark and dusty world, as well as in the description of childhood and the primitive and pre-industrialised society. The liminality stage, with all its preliminaries and most of its characteristics, is realised in the desired abstract spaces of Sepehri’s poetry. By incorporating symbols, Sepehri recreates this personal and abstract space for the reader. The post-liminality stage is characterized by Sepehri’s return to the initial balanced and normal state.
5. Conclusion
The three stages of rites of passage – pre-liminality (critical thinking and separation from the normal social space), liminality (desire to improve the position and understand a space higher than the existing-normal social order), and post-liminality (return to the initial balanced and normal state) – can be traced and explored in Sepehri's poetic discourse through a process consisting of four operational steps: gap, crisis, compensatory action, and coherence. Also, most of the characteristics considered for threshold (symbolic, formative, middle, prescriptive, ideological, suspenseful, and interconnected with mythology) are found in the ideal and transcendental space that Sohrab conceptualises in his poetry.
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