A Comparative Study of Death and Birth Patterns in the Popular Culture of Iranian People and Their Function in Iranian Dramatic Literature (After the Revolution)

Kianian, Majid

doi:10.22034/rpa.2024.2036286.1084

A Comparative Study of Death and Birth Patterns in the Popular Culture of Iranian People and Their Function in Iranian Dramatic Literature (After the Revolution)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Majid Kianian

PhD student of wisdom of religious arts, Faculty of Religion and Art, University of Religions and Denominations

10.22034/rpa.2024.2036286.1084

Abstract

This research aims to study the context of the manifestation of the two concepts of birth and death in drama literature after the Iranian revolution, considering the unbreakable relationship between drama and cultural rituals. It aims to demonstrate, from an Iranian anthropological perspective and through the concept of liminality, how birth and death are embodied within the dramatic structure of contemporary literature and their respective functions. On the one hand, the theoretical framework of the discussion is derived from Victor Turner’s views on the concept of liminal and even the theorists of the field of performance such as Richard Shechner, who have addressed this concept, along with the opinions of the Neo-Aristotelian experts of drama, provides the possibility of achieving the research goals. This research uses the qualitative method of thematic analysis to study the samples. On this basis, the evidence of the research shows that the dramatic literature of Iran has tried to gain public acceptance and believability by using the elements taken from the rituals of public culture in the structure of the plot on the one hand. On the other hand, it is trying to instill a kind of Iranian cultural identity into works, and the use of the two liminal of birth and death is no exception. Nevertheless, the results of an examination of the case studies show that although these two liminal can give a special function to the nature of the action or character in terms of their transformative quality in the structure of the poem, the thematic analysis of samples shows that by incomplete induction it can be said that the spirit of time is very influential in the way they are used ritually. As an example, due to the cultural and social coordinates of the era in the use of the liminal of death, the manifestation of the martyr’s ritual model can be observed with more echo and this is manifested in the face of Ahrimanan and Divan in the opposite field. In the context of using the liminal of birth, the same influence from the social-historical point of view of the time, for example, about the 1953 coup, can be seen in the birth of Divan or the rebirth of Siavash and the like.

Keywords

Iranian dramatic literature

death

birth

popular culture

liminal position

Subjects