Shiraz University

Graduate Student, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics

Ph. D. candidate

Literature and Humanities

Thesis Title: RALPH WALDO EMERSON AND SOHRAB SEPEHRI: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

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Abstract

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Sohrab Sepehri: A Comparative Study

By
Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi

Comparative literature deals with the study of literature in the broadest possible framework--interlingual, intercultural and interdisciplinary. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882), an essayist, philosopher, and poet, was one of America’s most influential thinkers and indisputably the central figure of the American Renaissance of the mid-19th century. Sohrab Sepehri is a distinguished modern artist. Familiar with Buddhism, far eastern mysticisms, and western literary schools, he combines the eastern concepts with western techniques, thereby writing a kind of poetry unsurpassed in the history of Persian literature. 
    While the number of works written on the influence of Persia on Emerson and the similarity between the American figure and Persian thought is noteworthy, unfortunately very few comprehensive works are written to compare Emerson with a Persian literary figure and even worse is that just one is written to compare Emerson with Sepehri. Therefore the collection of comparative works written on Emerson and Sepehri lacks some comprehensive comparative works in English on the Persian poet and his American counterpart. The main intention in this study is to introduce Sepehri to non-Iranian audience, especially English-speakers, by means of comparing and contrasting him with Emerson, a figure highly reputed in the international level, especially in the English-speaking countries.
    Chapter one is introduction and review of literature. Chapter two is biography and works of Emerson and Sepehri. Chapter three is nature, death, literary theory, and the influence of Persian poetry on Emerson. Chapter four is nature, death, literary theory, and the influence of Persian poetry on Sepehri. The last chapter is a conclusion which summarizes the three previous chapters and compares and contrasts Emerson's literary theory, the influence of Persian poetry on him, and death and nature in Emerson's works, with the corresponding items in Sepehri.

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