The hegemony of the discourse of love over reason in the Fifth Assembly of the Seven ‎Assemblies of Rumi based on the theory of Laclau and Mouffe

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD student in the Department of Persian Language and Literature - Islamic Azad University - Karaj branch-Iran

2 Assistant professor of the Department of Persian Language and Literature - Azad University - Karaj Branch - Iran

10.22103/jll.2026.26152.3230

Abstract

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's discourse theory, focusing on concepts such as ‎‎"hegemony," "articulation," "nodal point," and "floating signifier," provides a mechanism for ‎analyzing how meaning is formed and stabilized in linguistic and social processes. In light of ‎this framework, the present study examines the Fifth Assembly from Rumi's Seven Assemblies; ‎an assembly considered the focal point of the transition from jurisprudential discourse to ‎mystical knowledge, where the discursive competition between reason and love reaches its ‎peak. The aim of the research is to investigate how the discourse of love is constructed and ‎dominates over the discourse of reason, that is, to explain how Rumi utilizes linguistic and ‎rhetorical mechanisms to stabilize love as a hegemonic truth. The research method is analytical-‎descriptive and based on critical discourse analysis within the theoretical framework of Laclau ‎and Mouffe; the text of the Fifth Assembly serves as the unit of analysis and the ‎aforementioned theoretical concepts are tools to explain its semantic processes. The findings ‎show that Rumi, by articulating rational signs in the assembly through binary oppositions, ‎mystical metaphors, and instructive parables, transforms the discourse of love into the nodal ‎point of the text's meaning and relegates reason to a peripheral and subordinate position. The ‎conclusion of the study is that love in this assembly is not merely an emotional experience but a ‎discursive and epistemological construct that, through mystical language, redefines the system ‎of meaning and knowledge and establishes the hegemony of love over the discourse of reason.‎

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Journal of Prose Studies in Persian Literature

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 31 January 2026

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