خوانش ریزوماتیک شعر «ایمان بیاوریم به آغاز فصل سرد» فروغ فرخزاد باتکیه‌بر آرای دلوز و گاتاری

The complexity of modern human life and its ramifications in art and literature have forced literary theorists and critics to invent new and efficient methods of analysis. Meanwhile, Deleuze and Guattari’s “rhizomatic theory” and its associated concepts, such as becoming, body without organs, territorialization and de-territorialization, fluidity of meaning, machine of desire, and so forth, have been utilized by researchers in different fields of study. Employing a descriptive-analytical approach, the present research attempts a rhizomatic reading of Forough Farrokhzad’s poem, titled “Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season,” to clarify how a rhizomatic reading can identify and analyse nonlinear connections and possible meanings as well as dynamic identity and social processes in the poem. This study concludes that it is through nonlinear imagery and multiple themes that the poet represents a rhizomatic network of multifaceted meanings in which identity and desire are produced in a flexible and de-centred manner. This structure aligns with Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the body without organs. Through minority literature and becoming, Farrokhzad seeks to discover and construct feminine social identity.
 
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
The collaboration of Gilles Deleuze, the French poststructuralist philosopher, with Felix Guattari, a psychoanalyst and political theorist, introduced new concepts in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and social criticism. In this collaboration, Deleuze significantly deepens Guattari’s anti-psychiatry position by situating it within an alternative philosophical tradition including Nietzsche, Spinoza, and Bergson (instead of Plato, Descartes, and Hegel). On the other hand, Guattari dramatically extends Deleuze’s philosophical perspective by linking theoretical and institutional struggles in French psychoanalysis and psychiatry to political campaigns in student and labor movements in Europe. Informed by concepts such as rhizome, body without limbs, and becoming, they were able to move beyond linear frameworks and analyse phenomena from multiple perspectives. One can employ Deleuze and Guattari’s key concepts to analyse literary texts and uncover new meanings. These concepts go beyond traditional interpretations and provide a dynamic reading of literary texts, for a rhizome continuously links semiotic chains, power structures, and states of science, art, and social struggle (Deleuze and Guattari, 2005: 8).
Reflecting the complexities of the modern man, contemporary poetry provides a rich platform for a rhizomatic reading and the discovery of new layers of the text, both on literary and social levels. Rhizomatic reading is a method of analysing texts or phenomena which avoids linear and hierarchical structures and emphasises multidirectional and unpredictable connections.
Forough Farrokhzad is a prominent poet whose bold language and unprecedented imagery challenged gender, existential, and social experiences, turning her poetry into a space for redefining identity and resistance. Hence, a rhizomatic reading of her poetry allows for the discovery of unexpected connections between themes, images, and desires.
2. Methodology
This article conducts a theoretical research which is informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts. It adopts a descriptive-analytical method to provide a rhizomatic reading of Farrokhzad’s “Let’s Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season.” It also analyses the manifestations of identity and social dynamics by recognising the nonlinear connections and fluid meanings contained within the poem.
3. Theoretical Framework
Deleuze and Guattari list six principles to introduce the rhizome: connection, heterogeneity, plurality, non-significant rupture, cartography, and decalcomania or complete transference (Deleuze & Guattari, 2005: 7-10). They argue that intensity is the driving force behind the horizontal rhizomatic linkages, which directs the flow of energy, differences, and transformations in a rhizomatic system. Intensity is a fluid quality that plays a key role in the processes of “Becoming.”
By avoiding centrality and hierarchy, rhizome provides a space in which the limbless body can break free from fixed territories (deterritorialisation) and create unprecedented and unexpected connections. This structure, with its fluid and multiple nature, allows the body without limbs to function as a surface of free intensities and connections, where differences and processes of “becoming” flow freely in prefabricated forms. The connection between these two concepts lies in their ability to challenge hegemonic systems and foster dynamism, which leads to the creation of new possibilities in social, cultural, and biological relations.
“Minor Literature” and “Minor Language” are other related concepts which refer to discourses that are on the margins of dominant cultural and linguistic system. They, according to Deleuze and Guattari, have three key characteristics. This structure, with unexpected ruptures and connections, provides a space for the flow of intensities that emerge through differences and heterogeneities. Its driving force is the force of desire, which is produced by the desiring-machine.
4. Discussion and Analysis
Perhaps the entire poem can be defined as a Deleuzian social machine, which through challenging the continuity of traditional and patriarchal order and common thinking, invites the reader to redefine conventional structures. The lines of escape that create territory in this poem, such as “I am naked, I am naked, I am naked,” in effect challenge conventionally imposed coverings and emotions and such consequences as shame, guilt, and the desire to undermine traditions. Also, the representation of a body without limbs that has become a space without territory, acts as a centre of zero intensity, marking the readiness for the passage of intensities and forces. This is a process which involves the subject in becoming, emergences and falls, and displacements (Deleuze & Guattari, 1983: 84). A body without limbs is what remains when you have taken everything from it; in other words, a body without limbs is desire, and desire extends to this point: the desire for self-destruction, or the desire for the power of destruction.
Desire is the process by which the subject and the object merge to create reality. In poetry, this concept can be traced in the emergence of language as a flow of pure intensities and the inevitable relationships between words, images, and emotions. For example, one of the functions of repetition in the poem is to create a machine of desire. The repetitions of “time has passed” and “I am cold” are not simple emphases, but cycles of intensity that advance the process of “becoming” by continuously adding a layer. These repetitions act like separate temporal rhizomes; they constantly break linear time and instead of progressing, create static loops that become more intense each time.
5. Conclusion
Informed by a rhizomatic reading of Farrokhzad’s “Let's Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season,” we can identify the fluid relationships among the narrator, society, nature, love, and death as key notions in the polycentricity of the rhizome in a nonlinear path. Also, we can consider the de-territorialised boundaries of the narrator’s female identity, along with the endless possibilities of meaning that the poet uses to territorialise her thoughts; examples include common social and religious beliefs as nodes of intensity.
The poet’s identitical efforts are machines of desire which build a minor-literature that denigrates common beliefs about love, social relationships, and life, and reconstructs her lost and confused identity. Therefore, in this poem, love, death, and nature display a fluid and multifaceted meaning rather than traditional one-dimensional meanings. Its lines of escape, from a Deleuzean view, form a rhizome of resistance which seeks to subvert social hierarchies.
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