Constructing and Deconstructing Othering: Polycentrism versus Westoxication in Iran
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Katajun Amirpur
Abstract
The focus of this article is on the evolution of the attitudes of secular and religious Iranian intellectuals towards the West, arguing that today’s generation developed new polycentric positions in reaction to the concepts presented in the 1960s and 1970s by Jalāl Āl-e Aḥmad and ʿAli Šariʿati who have dominated the discourse since pre-revolutionary times. The study aims at contributing to an understanding of post-colonial identity politics by analyzing especially the views of so-called religious intellectuals towards the West. The former rigid culturalist and essentialist notion of the West, a kind of orientalism in reverse, is deconstructed today from a post-colonial perspective.
Abstract
The focus of this article is on the evolution of the attitudes of secular and religious Iranian intellectuals towards the West, arguing that today’s generation developed new polycentric positions in reaction to the concepts presented in the 1960s and 1970s by Jalāl Āl-e Aḥmad and ʿAli Šariʿati who have dominated the discourse since pre-revolutionary times. The study aims at contributing to an understanding of post-colonial identity politics by analyzing especially the views of so-called religious intellectuals towards the West. The former rigid culturalist and essentialist notion of the West, a kind of orientalism in reverse, is deconstructed today from a post-colonial perspective.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Notes on Transliteration VII
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Main Intellectual Trends
- Intellectuals and Society in Iran since 1953 17
- The Trajectory of the 1953 Military Coup and the Course of Liberal Islam in Iran: A Sociological Analysis 31
- Constructing and Deconstructing Othering: Polycentrism versus Westoxication in Iran 60
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Part II: The Voices of the Less Visible
- Insurmountable Hurdles to the Countering of Patriarchal Gender Discourse under a Clerical Oligarchy? Experiences of (Islamic) Feminists in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979–2009) 89
- Heirs of Modernity in Rural Iran 112
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Part III: Social Change in the Mirror of Art
- The Rebellious Man and the Courageous Woman: Social Criticism and Gender Relations in Iranian Film Production before and after the Islamic Revolution 131
- Between Change and Persistence: Reżā Julāʾi’s Short Story Miti-Jenn as a Mirror of Social Developments in Iran 155
- Note on Contributors 177
- Index of Names and Places 179
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Notes on Transliteration VII
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Main Intellectual Trends
- Intellectuals and Society in Iran since 1953 17
- The Trajectory of the 1953 Military Coup and the Course of Liberal Islam in Iran: A Sociological Analysis 31
- Constructing and Deconstructing Othering: Polycentrism versus Westoxication in Iran 60
-
Part II: The Voices of the Less Visible
- Insurmountable Hurdles to the Countering of Patriarchal Gender Discourse under a Clerical Oligarchy? Experiences of (Islamic) Feminists in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979–2009) 89
- Heirs of Modernity in Rural Iran 112
-
Part III: Social Change in the Mirror of Art
- The Rebellious Man and the Courageous Woman: Social Criticism and Gender Relations in Iranian Film Production before and after the Islamic Revolution 131
- Between Change and Persistence: Reżā Julāʾi’s Short Story Miti-Jenn as a Mirror of Social Developments in Iran 155
- Note on Contributors 177
- Index of Names and Places 179
