Iranian Studies, Volume 40 Issue 3 2007

Articles

Habermas and Iranian Intellectuals
Ali Paya; Mohammad Amin Ghaneirad
Pages 305 – 334
Abstract | Full Text PDF | Full Text HTML | Request Permissions
Related Articles

In this paper, we discuss the impact of Juumlrgen Habermas' ideas on Iranian intellectuals who live in Iran. The upshot of the paper is that in present day Iran, where the society is going through a significant transitional period, various intellectual groups have reacted differently towards the ideas of the German philosopher-sociologist. While the orthodox left-wing (ex-Marxist) intellectuals and the conservative right-wing writers have, by and large, tended to ignore his views, a younger generation of the left-wing intellectuals and a number of the Muslim intellectuals with left-wing/socialist tendencies, have tried, each in their own ways, to 'adopt' Habermas' ideas in pursuit of their own projects/research programs.

 buy now buy now

Contemporary Iranian Art: The Emergence of New Artistic Discourses
Hamid Keshmirshekan
Pages 335 – 366
Abstract | Full Text PDF | Full Text HTML | Request Permissions
Related Articles

This article deals with the emerging discourses and concerns that have dominated the Iranian art community mainly since 1997. It discusses the existing, or rather conflicting, views of the current situation of the visual arts in Iran as expressed in recent artistic events, productions, and exhibitions as well as in critical reviews.2 It does not fully discuss the variety of artistic genres in Iran, but examines the dominant ideas from the main opposing factions of cultural and artistic thought. It also aims at identifying the structural changes in Iranian art as well as the prevailing artistic policy of recent years.

 buy now buy now

Two Tales of a City: An Exploratory Study of Cultural Consumption among Iranian Youth
Aliakbar Jafari
Pages 367 – 383
Abstract | Full Text PDF | Full Text HTML | Request Permissions
Cited By | Related Articles

The complexity of the issues of youth has made this broad subject a focal theme for a large number of researchers and scholars who have looked at it from different perspectives (e.g., anthropology, sociology, psychology, and politics). Positioned in consumer culture theory, this paper is another attempt to explore a different dimension of the youth's world: cultural consumption among Iranian youth. The article, therefore, follows two objectives: First, within the context of cultural consumption among young Iranians, it seeks to demonstrate the complexity of consumption as a creative process of reflecting and constructing identities, meanings, and values. Second, it examines the impact of cultural globalization on the identity of such consumers and the varying relationships between their consumption patterns and identity construction. In so doing, the first part of the paper will concisely elaborate on consumer culture. Then, cultural globalization will be briefly defined and, within this framework, consumer culture among Iranian youth will be discussed.

 buy now buy now

Rain Making Ceremonies in Iran
Ilhan Başgöz
Pages 385 – 403
Abstract | Full Text PDF | Full Text HTML | Request Permissions
Related Articles

Pre-Islamic beliefs and practices abound in Iran, albeit with an Islamic veneer, have been entirely islamicized. One kind of such surviving practices is that of rain making ceremonies. In this article, seven major rain-making ceremonies are categorized, described, and interpreted, including some regional variants thereof. Attention is paid to the fact that these ceremonies are not limited to Iran, but are also found in neighboring countries (Iraq, Turkey, India, Central Asia), thus showing that these are all survivors of common ancient religious archetypes.

 buy now buy now

Mostafa Sho‘aiyan: The Maverick Theorist of Revolution and the Failure of Frontal Politics in Iran
Peyman Vahabzadeh
Pages 405 – 425
Abstract | Full Text PDF | Full Text HTML | Request Permissions
Related Articles

Based on the author's original research, the paper will offer a glimpse into the frontal theory of Mostafa Sho'aiyan. The paper draws on his life and experience of the National Front in the 1950s as a model for political thought. Next, the paper will show how he tried, through his unique and uncanonical revolutionary theory, to make a revolutionary praxis compatible with frontal thinking. Analytically, Sho'aiyan's work proves that an ideologically driven concept of national liberation becomes an impediment for frontal politics in a truly democratic way. Sho'aiyan's works represent a theoretical and existential response to the national liberation dilemma which the Iranian Marxists faced in the 1960s and 70s.

 buy now buy now
Miscellany
Reviews
Pages 427 – 444
Abstract | Full Text PDF | Full Text HTML | Request Permissions
Related Articles
 buy now buy now