Imagining Iran : the tragedy of subaltern nationalism
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Imagining Iran : the tragedy of subaltern nationalism
Lexington Books, c2013
- : pbk
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Note
Bibliography: p. 333-340
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Thematically, this book problematizes Iranian official nationalism. It reviews how every modern Iranian regime since the constitutional revolution of the 1905-06 has failed to legitimize its official identity, resulting in the fall of five different regimes. The book details how the collapse of each regime resulted in the interruption of the official meaning of being Iranian, as well as the meanings of its enemies. What remained the same was how every Iranian regime represented itself as the agent of a particular national desire defined in terms of making Iran to become sovereign, developed, democratic, and constitutional. Nonetheless, no regime was able to convince a great majority of the people that it achieved what it represented.
This book makes three specific contributions. The first contribution is pedagogical. By focusing on the dynamics of regime changes, it provides a heuristic model for identifying challenges that all Iranian regimes have faced. Moreover, the book is a comprehensive review of the disruptive, oppressive, and bloody nature of the rise and fall of different regimes. The second contribution is theoretical. Rather than examining the behavior of various Iranian regimes in isolation from their international context, the book examines how each regime got to understand itself in relations to its imperial others. By examining the governmental rationality of each regime, the book offers a better theoretical framework for understanding political development not only in Iran, but also in all other Middle Eastern and South Asian states. Finally, the third contribution of this book is its critical approach to the main body of the literature on Iran, modernity, development, democracy, and constitutionalism.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Contested Iranianness
Chapter 2: The Emergence of Modern Iranian Nationalism
Chapter 3: Subaltern Developmentalism: Reza Shah's Reign (1921-1941)
Chapter 4: Imperial Interventions (1941 and 1953)
Chapter 5: Formation of a Hegemonic National Opposition (1953-1978)
Chapter 6: The Islamic Republic: The Creation of an Islamic Iranian Subject
Chapter 7: Consolidation of the State Power but Crisis in National Identity
Chapter 8: Islamic Nationalism Redefined
Chapter 9: Official Nationalism in Practice: Seduction of Othering
Conclusion
by "Nielsen BookData"
