scholarly journals The Politics of Iranian Cinema

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-119
Author(s):  
Lina Khatib
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Islamic Republic ◽  
Form Part ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

If there is one element of the politics of Iranian cinema that is understudied,it is that of the relationship between Iranian films and the Iranian film audience.Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad’s book, The Politics of Iranian Cinema: Filmand Society in the Islamic Republic, fills this glaring gap by providing aunique insight into how Iranian films are received in Iran; what political andsocial debates they spark; and how they form part of a larger nexus of powernegotiations between the state, artists, and film viewers. The book takes anexpansive approach to “politics,” not favoring hard politics over soft politics or vice versa, but showing how the two go hand in hand in defining the filmmakingprocess in Iran.The book’s uniqueness lies in its reliance on participant observation, inaddition to interviews, as one method of studying the Iranian film audience.Through this, the reader gets a sense of people’s reactions to the films discussed.Zeydabadi-Nejad often reproduces sections of conversation amongfilm viewers that bring to life his statements about the films’ relationshipwith the political environment. The cynicism expressed by a group of youngpeople after watching Bahman Farmanara’s 2001 film House on the Water(p. 86), for example, serves as a sharp illustration of the disillusionment withstate ideology among the urban middle class — an issue covered elsewherein the literature on Iranian cinema, but usually presented in generalized termsrather than through the prism of individual reactions found here ...

On Metaphysics and the Political: A Polemics of Reading Baudelaire in the 1930s

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Poetry ◽  
Progressive Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.

The Concept of the Political

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Schupmann
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mass Movements ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 2 reinterprets Schmitt’s concept of the political. Schmitt argued that Weimar developments, especially the rise of mass movements politically opposed to the state and constitution, demonstrated that the state did not have any sort of monopoly over the political, contradicting the arguments made by predominant Weimar state theorists, such as Jellinek and Meinecke. Not only was the political independent of the state, Schmitt argued, but it could even be turned against it. Schmitt believed that his contemporaries’ failure to recognize the nature of the political prevented them from adequately responding to the politicization of society, inadvertently risking civil war. This chapter reanalyzes Schmitt’s political from this perspective. Without ignoring enmity, it argues that Schmitt also defines the political in terms of friendship and, importantly, “status par excellence” (the status that relativizes other statuses). It also examines the relationship between the political and Schmitt’s concept of representation.

Cultural Policies and the Islamic Republic: Cinema and Book Publication

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sussan Siavoshi
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Islamic Republic ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Islamic Republic Of Iran ◽  
The Government ◽  
Iranian State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Book Publication

The evolution of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the dynamics of the relationship between the Iranian state and society can be explored by examining the postrevolutionary regime's policies toward intellectuals, particularly as expressed in its regulation of cinema and book publication. This relationship—at least in the period from the early 1980s to the early 1990s—was complex and nuanced. Factionalism within the regime provided an opportunity for intellectuals to engage the state in a process of negotiation and protest, cooperation and defiance, in pushing the boundaries of permitted self-expression. The degree of their success depended in part on which faction controlled the government and its regulatory agencies during particular phases in the evolution of the postrevolutionary regime.

Trade Unions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Whiting
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political System ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Critical Moments

In assessing the relationship between trade unions and British politics, this chapter has two focuses. First, it examines the role of trade unions as significant intermediate associations within the political system. They have been significant as the means for the development of citizenship and involvement in society, as well as a restraint upon the power of the state. Their power has also raised questions about the relationship between the role of associations and the freedom of the individual. Second, the chapter considers critical moments when the trade unions challenged the authority of governments, especially in the periods 1918–26 and 1979–85. Both of these lines of inquiry underline the importance of conservatism in the achievement of stability in modern Britain.

Introduction: Beyond Benefits Street – exploring experiences and narratives of welfare reform

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Patrick
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Theoretical Context ◽  
Working Through ◽  
Longitudinal Approach ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter outlines the rationale behind conducting repeat interviews with out-of-work benefit claimants in an effort to better understand lived experiences of welfare reform. It introduces readers to the political and theoretical context, and highlights the value in employing social citizenship as a theoretical lens in order to tease out citizenship from above and below. The recent context of welfare reform in the UK is also introduced, highlighting the extent to which successive rounds of welfare reform have cumulatively reworked the relationship between the citizen and the state. The research on which this book is based is detailed, and the value in working through and across time by taking a qualitative longitudinal approach highlighted.

The Legitimating Power of Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-275
Author(s):  
Mustafa Menshawy
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Media Texts ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Culturally Embedded

Abstract In this article, I examine a corpus of texts that address the 1973 war; these texts cover the period from 1981 to 2011, marking the beginning and end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I explore how Mubarak’s regime employed the war to legitimize its power and defend its policies by deploying longstanding culturally-embedded ‘macro themes’. These macro themes refer to the war as an overwhelming and undisputed ‘Egyptian victory’ and, more significantly, they portray Mubarak himself as ‘war personified/war personalized’. The analysis of linguistic and extra-linguistic features in al-Ahram newspaper (the mouthpiece of the state), among other media texts on the war, show how the discursive construction was made consistent, coherent and resonant in a managed context that characterized the political and media landscapes. Depending on unique access to those who produced, edited and even censored the texts under analysis, this method unravels a complex set of cultural messages and conventions about the war, and fills a lacuna in the literature by offering insight into the deliberate and well-coordinated process of shaping and reshaping a specific discourse for a specific purpose.

scholarly journals Analysis of Political Metaphors in Donald J. Trump’s State of the Union Address in 2020

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-73
Author(s):  
Tang Bingyu
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cognitive Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
State Of The Union ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
George Lakoff ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Relationship

On the basis of Conceptual Metaphor Theory proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, this paper conducts a cognitive analysis of conceptual metaphors in Donald J. Trump’s State of the Union Address in 2020, aiming to explain the metaphors in the State of the Union Address, reveal the political intentions hidden behind the metaphors, and construe the relationship between politics and metaphor. It is found that the metaphors in this State of the Union Address are: CONFLICT metaphors, BUILDING metaphor, JOURNEY metaphors, ORIENTATIONAL metaphors, and PLANT metaphors. Through the analysis, this paper concludes that conceptual metaphor has the function of persuading the masses and shaping the image of politicians. At the same time, this paper also finds that politics restricts the choice and application of metaphor.

Unmaking Black Political Subjects

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianna S. Paschel
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Dominant Classes

This chapter examines the extent to which Brazilian and Colombian states have implemented ethno-racial reforms and explores the ways in which these policies have changed these societies. It pays special attention to the political conditions that shape these states' decisions to make good on their promises or not. More specifically, it shows how implementation has depended heavily on the ways in which activists navigate their domestic political fields, including how they negotiate their newly gained access to the state. It is also profoundly shaped by the emergence of reactionary movements. Indeed, as the dominant classes became increasingly aware of what was at stake with these rights and policies—land, natural resources, seats in congress, and university slots that could maintain or secure one's place within the middle class—they sought to dismantle them, sometimes through violent means.

Concluding Remarks to Part 3

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Preminger
Keyword(s):  
Government Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Sphere ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 15 summarizes the chapters which addressed the third sphere, the relationship of labor to the political community. It reiterates that since Israel was established, the labor market’s borders have become ever more porous, while the borders of the national (Jewish) political community have remained firm: the Jewish nationalism which guides government policy is as strong as ever. NGOs, drawing on a discourse of human rights, are able to assist some non-citizens but this discourse also resonates with the idea of individual responsibility: the State is no longer willing to support “non-productive” populations, who are now being shoehorned into a labor market which offers few opportunities for meaningful employment, and is saturated by cheaper labor intentionally imported by the State in response to powerful employer lobbies. These trends suggest a partial reorientation of organized labor’s “battlefront”, from a face-off with capital to an appeal to the public and state.

Documentary Goes Popular

2019 ◽  
pp. 61-102
Author(s):  
Angela J. Aguayo
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Documentary History ◽  
Creative Force ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

While the documentary genre has frequently been conceptualized as a democratic tool with civic potential, the ways popular advocacy documentary functions in the process of social change is unclear. We need more information about the relationship between documentary agitation and collective organizing for social change, as well as about how this function shifts with the visibility of popular attention. Mainstream commercial culture is more than at odds with a commons of democratic exchange. The advocacy film is a time-honored tradition in documentary history, made specifically for the aims of democratic exchange. This type of film is produced for political causes by activists or advocates who are not closely connected with the government or decision makers. Often the director is constructed as a central creative force. Central figures usually function as surrogates for the film in public interviews and engagements; the speakers are often connected to sponsoring organizations. In this chapter, I first address the historical linage of popular documentary and its movement from the vernacular to the popular. Then, I examine the ways popular advocacy documentary in popular form has morphed in recent years, providing insight into the potential of the genre to make contact with the political structure.

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