The Art of Defiance - by Peyman Vahabzadeh (Hardcover)

About the Book

Examines how the arts popularised militant resistance to the monarchy in 1970s Iran

Book Synopsis

At a time of growing state control, censorship and wholesale crackdown on opposition in post-1953 Iran, intellectuals and artists began to produce works that defied the Shah's dictatorship and the regime's "Great Civilisation" propaganda. With the emergence of urban guerrilla warfare in 1971, dissident artists - spearheaded by Marxist People's Fadai Guerrillas (PFG) - created symbolic works that popularised the militants' ideas through artistic depictions and tropes, while portraying the militants as immortal freedom-fighters. The arts of defiance thus swayed young educated Iranians, as well as certain layers of the public, to perceive the state through the eyes of its most radical critiques: militant dissidents.
By closely examining and interpreting the poetry, fiction, songs and films of the 1960s and 1970s, this book uncovers how militant action was translated into artistic expressions and vice versa. It also explores how the PFG militants - who were few in number - were able to acquire a 'heroic' dimension in the eyes of the public, portraying a symbolic image of defiance far beyond their actual militant existence.

From the Back Cover

Examines how the arts popularised militant resistance to the monarchy in 1970s Iran At a time of growing state control, censorship and wholesale crackdown on opposition in post-1953 Iran, intellectuals and artists began to produce works that defied the Shah's dictatorship and the regime's 'Great Civilisation' propaganda. With the emergence of urban guerrilla warfare in 1971 - spearheaded by the Marxist People's Fadai Guerrillas (PFG) - dissident artists created symbolic works that popularised the militants' ideas through artistic depictions and tropes, while portraying the militants as immortal freedom-fighters. The arts of defiance thus swayed young educated Iranians, as well as certain layers of the public, to perceive the state through the eyes of its most radical critiques: militant dissidents. By closely examining and interpreting the poetry, fiction, songs and films of the 1960s and 1970s, this book uncovers how militant action was translated into artistic expressions and vice versa. It also explores how the PFG militants - who were few in number - were able to acquire a 'heroic' dimension in the eyes of the public, portraying a symbolic image of defiance far beyond their actual militant existence. Key Features  The first comprehensive study of the relationship between the arts and revolutionary action of Iranian dissidents of the 1970s  Examines popular poets (Nima Yushij, Ahmad Shamlu, Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, Khosrow Golesorkhi), writers (Sadeq Chubak, Samad Behrangi, Gholam Hossein Sa'edi), filmmakers (Massoud Kimiai, Amir Naderi, Ebrahim Golestan), lyricists (Shahyar Ghanbari and Iraj Janantie-Atai) and singers (Farhad Mehrad and Dariush Eghbali)  Provides an analytical approach that reveals how arts and action are braided and inseparable through symbols and semiosis Peyman Vahabzadeh is Professor of Sociology at University of Victoria. He is the author of many books, including A Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy and the Fadai Discourse of National Liberation in Iran, 1971-1979 (2010) and A Rebel's Journey: Mostafa Sho'aiyan and Revolutionary Theory in Iran (2019).

Review Quotes

This is a highly original contribution to the existing studies of pre-revolutionary Iran as well as to the more general, theoretical literature on the political dimension of the intersection of the art and culture in social movements and revolutionary societies.

--Dr. Kamran Matin, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Sussex

About the Author

Peyman Vahabzadeh is Professor of Sociology at University of Victoria. He is the author of Articulated Experiences: Toward A Radical Phenomenology of Contemporary Social Movements (State University of New York Press, 2003), A Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy and the Fadai Discourse of National Liberation in Iran, 1971-1979 (Syracuse University Press, 2010), Exilic Meditations: Essays on A Displaced Life (H&S Media, 2012), Parviz Sadri: A Political Biography (Shahrgon Books, 2015; in Persian), Violence and Nonviolence: Conceptual Excursions into Phantom Opposites (University of Toronto Press, 2019), and A Rebel's Journey: Mostafa Sho'aiyan and Revolutionary Theory in Iran (OneWorld, 2019). He is also the editor of Iran's Struggles for Social Justice: Economics, Agency, Justice, Activism (Palgrave, 2017) and the co-editor, with Samir Gandesha, of Crossing Borders: Essays in Honour of Ian Angus (Arbeiter Ring, 2020). He has published eight books of poetry, fiction, literary criticism, and memoirs in Persian. His works have appeared in English, Persian, German, Kurdish, French and Spanish.