Abstract
The present article investigates the intellectual and discursive orientation of the culture-critical essay West Infection by the twentieth century Iranian writer Ǧalāl Āl-e Aḥmad (1923–1969). In doing so, it likewise discusses the question of why this particular text was to have so deep and lasting an effect in redirecting the sociocultural modernization debate among Iranian intellectuals from a mainly developmentalist discourse to one about the issues of authenticity and identity. While considering Āl-e Aḥmad’s essay as raising a question of meaning – more specifically the question of human being’s meaning in the face of dehumanization under the spell of technological ‘Westernization’ –, we critically examine, in the course of our study, former interpretive approaches that define Āl-e Aḥmad’s text as reflecting influence on the author of existentialist philosophy. At the same time, we also address scholarly discussions of West Infection that regard it as a manifestation of nativism or leftist anti-capitalism. Rather than trying, in our turn, to pin down what Āl-e Aḥmad has to say to any given ideological or philosophical doctrine, we attempt to understand the use by Āl-e Aḥmad, in his essay, of terms such as ‘authenticity’, ‘alienation’, ‘identity’ and ‘religion’ – some of which are highly evocative of existentialism and of nativism indeed – as constitutive of a discourse that – for all the arguable influence on it of modern ideologies and philosophies – deserves to be treated as a word in its own right in the debate about Iran’s sociocultural situation.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- Fatma Aliye Hanım: Gender Debates in Turkey
- Negotiating the Relationship Human – Non-Human as a Question of Meaning in Twentieth Century Iranian Authenticity Discourse: The Role of Ǧalāl Āl-e Aḥmad’s Essay West Infection
- ʿIlm al-kalām in Mauretanien anhand maurischer Kommentare zur Iḍāʾat ad-duǧunnafī iʿtiqād ahl as-sunna von al-Maqqarī (st. 1041/1632)
- Die Kopten und der Arabische Frühling: Zwischen politischer Emanzipation und Minderheitenstatus
- L’émancipation du zaǧal oriental de ses modèles andalous à l’ère mamelouke
- Altarabische Dichtung über Dattelpalmen aus dem Kitāb al-Fuṣūṣ („Buch der Ringsteine“) des Ṣāʿid al-Baġdādī (ca. 335–417/945–1026)
- A Critique of the Concepts of “Youth” and “Generation” as Applied in Empirical Research in Contemporary Tunisia
- Unfertige Studien 4: Skrupelhaftigkeit
- Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
- Book Review
- Book Review
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- Fatma Aliye Hanım: Gender Debates in Turkey
- Negotiating the Relationship Human – Non-Human as a Question of Meaning in Twentieth Century Iranian Authenticity Discourse: The Role of Ǧalāl Āl-e Aḥmad’s Essay West Infection
- ʿIlm al-kalām in Mauretanien anhand maurischer Kommentare zur Iḍāʾat ad-duǧunnafī iʿtiqād ahl as-sunna von al-Maqqarī (st. 1041/1632)
- Die Kopten und der Arabische Frühling: Zwischen politischer Emanzipation und Minderheitenstatus
- L’émancipation du zaǧal oriental de ses modèles andalous à l’ère mamelouke
- Altarabische Dichtung über Dattelpalmen aus dem Kitāb al-Fuṣūṣ („Buch der Ringsteine“) des Ṣāʿid al-Baġdādī (ca. 335–417/945–1026)
- A Critique of the Concepts of “Youth” and “Generation” as Applied in Empirical Research in Contemporary Tunisia
- Unfertige Studien 4: Skrupelhaftigkeit
- Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
- Book Review
- Book Review