From Historical Identity to Cultural Identity: An Examination of the Narration of the City in the Film “Tehran Tehran” from the Perspective of Imagology

Salehi, Narges; Shakeri, Ahmad

doi:10.22034/rpa.2024.2037791.1095

From Historical Identity to Cultural Identity: An Examination of the Narration of the City in the Film “Tehran Tehran” from the Perspective of Imagology

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

narges salehi ¹

ahmad shakeri ²

¹ PhD in Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Cultural Studies Research Center, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/rpa.2024.2037791.1095

Abstract

The city as a social term, plays a significant role in shaping the culture, history, and identity of its inhabitants. Due to this function, it has the potential to become the subject of cinematic and literary works. In cinematic works, the city is either considered a historical element, with efforts made to present a narrative of its historical past or as a cultural element, where the city takes on a human-like essence, becoming central to the narrative and sometimes even one of the story narrators. In the present study, the narration of the city in the film “Tehran Tehran”, directed by Dariush Mehrjui and Mehdi Karampour, is examined from the perspective of imagology. In the film, Tehran is first introduced to the audience from a historical perspective, portraying its historical life and positioning it as the historical “Self” to reflect the past historical identity for its elderly audience and to remind them of Tehran’s memories. In the second part of the narrative, the city of Tehran is considered the core of the narrative, viewed as the “Other” for a group of young people who are in contrast with the previous generation. In this scenario, the city becomes the main narrator of the events and issues faced by the younger generation.

Keywords

City

Historical identity

Cultural identity

Tehran Tehran

Imagology

Subjects