Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam of the Shiites and Salman Harati’s Nostalgic, Futuristic Poetry

Nostalgia can be defined as a feeling that a time in the past was good, or the activity of remembering a good time in the past and wishing that things had not changed. From a psychological viewpoint, there are a number of different reasons for nostalgia such as remembrance of childhood days, feeling alienated, death of a loved one and the unfulfilled hope for a utopia and historical past. In literature, it is usually argued that the feeling of nostalgia happens in literature quite naturally and without the knowledge of the writer and because of this it has a stylistic importance in the study of a work of literature. It receives a special place in an author-oriented stylistic study of a text, especially in a psychological study of a text. New literary criticism usually divides nostalgia into two types of social and personal.
In recent decades, new critical studies of nostalgia have dramatically increased; this is because social injustice, poverty, political upheavals as well as being away from one’s motherland have come to the fore. This happens to such a great extent that one can see it in many of the works of contemporary Iranian poets. This research aims to analyze the theoretical background of personal and collective nostalgia in the poetry of some contemporary Iranian poets, especially the poems of Salman Harati whose poems have references to the Twelfth Imam of the Shiites. The subjects and issues explored in the poetry of Salman Harati can potentially be used as trendsetters at the time of globalization; and hence a need to reassess themes and ideas of his poetry. In the end there will be a discussion regarding the improvement of the culture of awaiting the Coming of Hazrate Mahdi.