The Image of the Lampooned in Salim's Invective Poetry

Abstract

In lampoon and invective poetry, the poet highlights the shortcomings, flaws, and personal weaknesses of the target, who can be an individual, a group, a tribe, or a nation. This target is not necessarily human; sometimes, living creatures and inanimate objects also become the poet's focus, as seen in Salim's personal lampoons, where he directed his attacks and insults toward animals alongside humans. The significance of this study lies in the complete absence of specialized research on Salim's invective poetry, aiming to identify the satirized targets and the characteristics of their imagery within the text. Consequently, the objective of this research is to distinguish the features of these lampooned images, precisely determining the physical, intellectual, and moral traits of the targets. To achieve this, the study employs the analytical method in its detailed textual analysis, which critically adopts a hybrid textual and eclectic approach that occasionally considers the poet's biography and Kurdish society. Ultimately, the most significant finding reveals that Salim targeted animals in addition to humans, predominantly emphasizing the physical aspects of the targets, within which sexual themes occupied a vast scope.