The Poetics of Iranian Cinema

In the wake of the Islamic Revolution, Iran experienced not only profound political and social changes, but also underwent a dramatic shift in its cultural and literary discourse. In The Poetics of Iranian Cinema, Khatereh Sheibani argues that Persian poetry, fiction, painting and other art forms all were influenced by the upheavals of the 1970s and 80s, but that this remarkable cultural revolution is best evidenced in Iranian films. In fact, she holds that film ultimately replaced...
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In the wake of the Islamic Revolution, Iran experienced not only profound political and social changes, but also underwent a dramatic shift in its cultural and literary discourse. In The Poetics of Iranian Cinema, Khatereh Sheibani argues that Persian poetry, fiction, painting and other art forms all were influenced by the upheavals of the 1970s and 80s, but that this remarkable cultural revolution is best evidenced in Iranian films. In fact, she holds that film ultimately replaced poetry as the dominant form of cultural expression in Iran. As evidence, she presents a comparative analysis of post-revolutionary Iranian cinema - particularly the work of Abbas Kiarostami and Bahram Bayzai - as an offshoot of Iranian modernity, and explains its connections with the themes present in traditional Persian poetry and conventional visual arts. She thus offers a valuable and very original contribution to the scholarly literature on Iranian cinema, politics and culture.