The Role of Gender in Production and Selection of Metaphors in Poems by Shamloo and Moshiri based on Discourse Theory of Metaphor

Many noteworthy studies have been done to examine the discursive relationship between gender and metaphor in the context of politics, media and literature. In this research, however, I try to investigate the relationship between gender and metaphor specifically in poetical discourse. The main questions of this research are as follows: What is the role of gender in the production and selection of metaphors in the poems by Shamloo and Moshiri? And also can we claim that metaphor is an instrument for representation of sexism in given poems? Research data are extracted from poems by Shamloo and Moshiri and they are analyzed based on Charteris-Black’s discourse theory of metaphor. The results of research indicate that there are manifestations of sexism in these poems, but the degree of sexism in the poems of Shamloo is higher than Moshiri’s. The reason is that the semantic domain of war on conceptual metaphors in Shamloo’s poems is more than Moshiri’s. Therefore, the results of the research indicate that the production and selection of metaphors in poems are decided by gender, attitude and thought of poets, as well as their feelings and social atmosphere. Indeed, gender plays an important role in production and selection of metaphors in poems.