The influence Of European intellectual ideas upon Iranian prose and non-fiction in the 60s and 70s

In the 60s and 70s gradually Iranian intellectuals start viewing Islam and tradition as a source of energy for social change (source: Pixabay, CC0)

A publication in the Romanian journal Studia Europaea on the changing Iranian identity in the pre-revolutionary period

Vladimir Mitev

This publication appeared in the 1/2022 volume of Studia Europaea journal of the University ”Babeș-Bolyai”, Cluj-Napoca Romania on 1 July 2022

Abstract

Following the coup d’etat of 1953 and the trauma caused by it gradually in the 60s and 70s in Iran a new subjectivity, a new vision for the Iranian subject of modernity emerged. Iranians were called by their intellectuals to overcome the trauma, which was called “occidentosis”, a state in which everything that they try to create and produce is “stilborn”. They were asked to no longer accept predestination and quietism, developing courage instead, becoming militant and finding their own, authentic way of encountering technologies and the West. This paper systematically demonstrates that the new subjectivity, which can be seen in the Iranian prose and non-fiction in the 60s and 70s is heavily influenced by European intellectual ideas. 

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Social and anti-colonial motives in pre-revolutionary Iranian thought

Jalal Al-e Ahmad is one of the most important prerevolutionary Iranian intellectuals (source: Facebook)

English-lanaguage transcription of Vladimir Mitev’s lecture, conducted online in Romanian 

On May 27, 2022, Vladimir Mitev, founder of the blog “The Persian Bridge of Friendship,” delivered an online lecture in Romanian entitled “Social and Anticolonial Motives in Pre-Revolutionary Iranian Thought” to the audience of the Center for Near Eastern and Mediterranean Studies at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. The text below is a transcript of Vladimir’s lecture, and the discussion that took place after the lecture will be published in a separate article. The opening remarks are by Prof. Dr. Marius Lazar, Director of the Middle East Centre at the University.

Here is the video from the lecture with subtitles in English:

Heidegger as a key philosopher in Iran

Bijan Abdolkarimi is an influential Iranian scholar on Heidegger. He is the author of the series of lectures “Heidegger in Iran” (source: YouTube)

Authenticity and spiritual struggle/resistance could be concepts that matter for Iranians both before and after 1979

Vladimir Mitev

This publication was presented at the conference Iran and Europe in the Mirror of History, which took place in the University of Sofia in June 2016. The translations of the quotes belong to the author of the article.

Pre-revolutionary philosophical ideas on the subject of modernity in Iran

Tehran (source: Pixabay, CC0)

What are the understandings of Iranian thinkers Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Ali Shariati, Ruhollah Khomeini and Morteza Motahhari about human subjectivity and human agency in the earthly world?

Vladimir Mitev

This article is part of the proceedings of the international conference “Iran and the World in the Mirror of History”, which took place in University of Sofia in February 2019. It was organised by the University of Sofia, the Allameh Tabatabai University (Tehran), and the Islamic Free University (Tehran).

A more recent, thorough and more precise understanding of Al-e Ahmad’s Occidentosis can be found here. The interview with the president of the Iranian Academy Reza Davari can be read here.

Al-e Ahmad’s fight against occidentosis as a modernisation project of Iran

The 1984 English edition of “The Occidentosis” by Jalal Al-e Ahmad carries the subtitle “A plague from the West” (source: The Persian Bridge of Friendship)

The pre-revolutionary Iranian writer Jalal Al-e Ahmad looks for the creation of a new subject of the Iranian modernity – not in the blind Westernization, or in retreat to lifeless tradition, but in “a return forwad” to breaking the spell of machine and technology and putting them in service of the Iranian nation

Vladimir Mitev

This article was published on 20 November 2020 in the journal Manas of the Center for Eastern Languages and Cultures of the University in Sofia in its sixth issue (volume 1), 2020.

The Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979) has been resonating as an event of prime importance in its region for the last 40 years. It is one of the first cases, when the political islam takes over the power in the Great Middle East. But the Islamic Revolution doesn’t come at an empty place. It was prepared both by the historic events of the 20^th century in Iran (most of all by the American-British coup d’etat against Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953) and by the political, philosophical and literary searches of the Iranian intellectuals in the period between 1953 and 1979.