Unthinking the national imaginary : the singular cinema of Abbas Kiarostami

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Visual and Cultural Studies Program, 2011.This dissertation is a close examination of the role of Iranian national cinema in the constitution of national identity both within and across geographic national boundaries. By focusing on specific moments of cross-cultural reception as dynamic processes of cultural exchange and transformation, I hope to move beyond conventional studies that approach national cinemas as inert and passive objects. My project offers a comprehensive analysis of the very complex process of the introduction of the cinematic apparatus as Western technology and its encounter and interaction with Iranian culture and local narrative, visual and dramatic traditions. I also consider the some of the most salient characteristics of Iran’s present-day post-Revolutionary cinema such as self-reflexivity and self-referentiality, austere story-telling, de-dramatization of film events, use of non-actors, non-closure, location shooting, and female-centered/feminist narratives. It is very important to look closely at the reception of this post-Revolutionary cinema in relation the ways that the contemporary (local and global) definitions of ‘Iran’ and ‘Iranian-ness’ are shaped. In this regard, the films by Abbas Kiarostami play a significant role, because they often resist representations of the myth of a unified nation. Radically anti-allegorical in their representational strategies, Kiarostami’s films stress the singularity of their events, characters and encounters. It is my contention that by emphasizing the partiality and singularity of representations of subjects, time and location, Kiarostami’s films effectively deconstruct the myth of a coherent and homogenous national unity