Representing the Unpresentable
Historical Images of National Reform from the Qajars to the Islamic Republic of Iran

Cloth $29.95s    |    978-0-8156-3179-8    |    2007

Winner of the 2008 Latifeh Yarshater Award from the Persian Heritage Foundation.

Examines intricate connections among visual, religious, and cultural traditions.

Description
In this pioneering book Negar Mottahedeh explores the central issues of vision and visibility in Iranian culture. She focuses on historical and literary texts to understand the use of visual culture in the production of the contemporary nation. Tracing the historical mediation and dissemination of ideas for national reform in the modern period of Iran, the book examines the various discourses that have constituted the image of the "Babi."

As cinema began to displace other forms of Iranian entertainment, Islamic culture attempted to keep the motion picture industry free from what it perceived to be the taint of foreign values and intervention. With rich insight and compelling detail, Mottahedeh looks at the revealing ways in which Iranian cinema has dealt with representing the unpresentable. In her exploration of gender and Iranian film, the author argues powerfully against contemporary uses of veiling in the representation of Iran as a modern nation. This highly original work, signaling a paradigm shift in Iranian studies and gender studies, will be an invaluable resource for scholars.

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Author
Negar Mottahedeh has published articles in the 2005 Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures; Traditions in World Cinema, and World Order Magazine, among others. She is assistant professor at Duke University.

6 x 9, 264 pages, 5 illustrations, bibliography, index