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Instabilities in the Identity of an Artistic Tradition as "Persian," “Islamic," and “Iranian” in the Shadow of Orientalism A Dissertation Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Trent University Peterborough, Canada © Copyright by Nooshin Aghayan 2019 Cultural Studies Ph.D. Graduate Program May 2019 Abstract Instabilities in the Identity of an Artistic Tradition as "Persian," “Islamic," and “Iranian” in the Shadow of Orientalism Nooshin Aghayan This dissertation is a critical review of the discursive formation of Islamic art in the twentieth century and the continuing problems that the early categorization of this discipline carries. It deals with the impact of these problems on the conceptualization of another category, Persian art. The subject is expounded by three propositions. First, the category of Islamic art was initially a product of Orientalism formulated regardless of the indigenous/Islamic knowledge of art. Second, during the early period when art historians examined different theoretical dimensions for constructing an aesthetic of Islamic art in the West, they imposed a temporal framework on Islamic art in which excluded the non-traditional and contemporary art of Islamic countries. Third, after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iranian scholars eventually imposed academic authority over the discipline of Persian/Islamic art, they adopted the same inadequate methodologies that were initially used in some of the early studies on the art of the Muslims. These propositions are elaborated by examples from twentieth-century Iranian movements in painting, The Coffeehouse Painting and The School of Saqqakhaneh, and the incident of swapping Willem de Kooning‟s painting Woman III with the dismembered manuscript of the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp in 1994. The conceptualization of Islamic art as a discipline is also discussed in relation to the twentieth-century cultural context of Iran. The argument is divided into three chapters in relation to three important historical moments in the history of contemporary Iran: The Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911), the modernization of Iran (1925-1975), ii and the Islamic Revolution (1979-onward). The formation of the discourse of Islamic art is the fruit of nineteenth-century Orientalism. Out of this discourse, Persian art as a modern discourse addressing the visual culture of Pre-Islamic and Islamic Iran came into being. I claim that after the Islamic Revolution, Iranian academics demonstrate a theoretical loyalty to the early theorizations of Islamic/Persian art. By this token, visual signs are given a meta-signified in the narrative of Islamic art. The ontological definition of this meta-signified is subjected to the dominant ideology, which determines how different centers of meaning should come into being and disappear. In the post-Revolution academia, the center is construed as the transcendental signified. Such inherence resulted in a fallacy in the reading of the Persian side of Islamic art, to which I refer as the “signification fallacy.” The dissertation draws on the consequences of this fallacy in the critique of Islamic art. Keywords: Persian art, Islamic art, Iranian art; Persian classical literature, Narrative. Image, Representation, Aniconism, Abstraction, Modernity, Tradition, Orientalism, The Constitutional Revolution, Modernization, The Islamic Revolution. Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, The Coffeehouse Painting, The School of Saqqakhaneh; Modernism: Woman III. iii To My Wounded Soul iv Acknowledgements I shall consider the completion of this work as the outcome of a continuous academic interaction between me and a large community of intellectuals, otherwise this research would be no more than a plain proposal. The members of this community were outstanding university professors and enthusiastic PhD students. I gleaned words and sentences, thoughts and ideas, theories and lessons from the dynamic field of Cultural Studies in Trent University. The help and support of these wonderful people made it possible for me to gather my own share of intellectual harvest. This makes me thankful of each and every one who listened to my stories, read my drafts, and challenged my arguments. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor and mentor, Professor Jonathan Bordo. With no doubt, I have been influenced and inspired by his deep knowledge of philosophy, history, literature, and art. From the first time that he knew about my research, he accurately predicted the trajectory of its completion and to my surprise I ended up exactly where he foresaw. Those years that I was guided by him will be always remembered by me as an unrepeatable academic experience. When I entered into Cultural Studies program, I felt no more than an imposter, incapable of communicating with the rest, and far behind anybody else, but Professor Bordo never stopped believing in me and my research. More importantly, he has taught me how to feel included, love Canada, appreciate its wilderness, and enjoy being in the multicultural fabric of its society. And yet it is not just my work since my husband and I are also indebted to the hospitality, kindness, and generosity that we received from Professor Bordo and his lovely family Doreen, Daniel and Rosamunde. v I would like also to thank Professor Emeritus Andrew Wernick whose rich experience and knowledge in the field of religion and history were instrumental to my research. He could see what I was trying to say even though my first drafts always showcased all the insecurities that a writer in her second language represents. Each comment that he gave me was constructive. And more importantly, his kindness and goodwill helped me to leave behind obstacles and proceed forward. The completion of this work is also indebted to Professor Ihor Junyk whose careful reading of my work was immensely helpful. I had the honour of working with Professor Junyk as a teaching assistant for different courses. I did not miss even a single lecture conducted by him because I knew I would leave the lecture hall with new ideas for writing. He is my role model and I hope one day I can teach art and literature courses like the way he masterfully orchestrates his lectures. I was honoured to have Professor Mohammad Tavakoli Targhi and Professor Dilyana Mincheva as my external readers in the very last step. They challenged me to see other aspects of Iranian history and Islam by their careful reading of my dissertation. They helped me to have a better vision of the future of these fields of studies in Canadian academia. Moreover, it was absolutely heart-warming to have Professor Tavakoli- Targhi, the distinguished scholar of Iranian history, and Professor Mincheva, one of the successful Trent alumni, in my defense committee. A very special thanks goes to Professor Michael Morse. Michael‟s honesty in criticism was essential to my progress. He showed me how to be straightforward, careful and concise in prose writing. His friendship is invaluable. I am likewise grateful to my dear friend Dr. Sara Jane Affleck. Jane saved my dissertation by editing and proofreading it in a masterful manner. Her magical touch conjured up the essence of vi my argument in a way that I could not imagine. I am also fortunate to have the friendship of many other wonderful young scholars in Trent University. My dear friends Anhiti Patniak, Moritz Ingwersen, Katie Green, Jessica Becking, Mir Hossein Mahdavi, Gozde Kilic, Laura Greenwood, Laura Thursby, and D. Laurence Dunne changed my world and left me in awe. They re-defined the concept of friendship and I am thankful of the time, attention, friendship and love that they bestowed on me whenever I asked for company, support and friendship. And last but not the least; I want to express my gratitude to the kindest couple that I know in Peterborough: Ernest and Tina Dyck. They were my first landlords in Peterborough. Ernest and Tina have showed me an authentic love for human beings, animals, and nature that before meeting them I had forgotten all about it. It is only obvious to me that without the support and love of my husband, Dr. Kamran Mobini and my mother, Parvin Mazaheri, the golden experience of studying in Canada would be impossible. My mum encouraged me to pursue my dreams and embark on a new journey in the fields of humanities when others thought that I must be crazy to quit my money making job as a professional chemist. Kamran was always ready to pay all the expenses that such a radical move required and he even put his profession in danger in order to stay with me in Canada. My mum patiently accepted all the discomfort that my absence brought to her. They know that they are somehow present in each page of this work. This will stay as a secret between us. vii Table of Contents //Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ii //Acknowledgements------------------------------------------------------------------v //List of Figures------------------------------------------------------------------------x //Introduction: How a Personal Quest Became a Dissertation -----------------xi //The Great Division, The Cultural History of Iranian Modernization---------1 - The “Orientalist” Discourse of Despotism Revisited - Modernity Retrieved: Remapping One‟s Own Imaginary Geography - Restoring History and Language //Persian or Islamic: The Duality in the Discursive Formation of Art----------44 - The Discipline