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سخنران: د کتر آیدا مفتاحی، استادیار تاریخ، دانشگاه ایالتی بویزی
اصطلاح «مبتذل» در گفتمان هنری حزب توده، سازمان بزرگ مارکسیستی ایران، که در دوران شکوفایی خ ود در دهه ۱۹۴۰ میلادی، سرمایه‌گذاری زیادی روی فرهنگ و هنر به عنوان رسانهٔ س یاست داشت، بسیار رایج بود. این سخنرانی با تمرکز بر جنبه‌های جنسیتی و جسمانی اصطلاح «ابتذال» و متضادهای دوگانهٔ آن، یعنی «متعهد» یا «هنری»، قصد دارد ای ن اصطلاحات را در گفتمان هنری حزب توده بررسی کند. منابع اولیه این تحقیق شامل اسناد و نشریات حزب توده و همچنین اسناد سفارت و کنسولگری اتحاد جماهیر شوروی و سازمان‌های دارای پیوند قوی با آن و همچنین خاطرات اعضای حزب توده است. تحل یل عمیق این مفاهیم و ویژگی‌های اخلاقی و زیبایی‌شناختی آنها برای درک هنرهای معاصر ایران و نقد فرهنگی بسیار مهم است.
Presented in
English with subtitles.
Relatively understudied and preva
lently deployed in the cultural discourse of contemporary Iran\, the term “
degenerate” (mubtazal) has historically been used to devalue and dismiss a
range of arts\, most of which belong to the realm of urban popular culture.
While in the leftist discourse the term contrasted the valorized political
ly conscious “committed” (muti‘ahhid)\, in other contexts degenerate connot
ed a lack of artistic quality and tastelessness. When applied specifically
to performing bodies (performance in its broad sense)\, the term degenerate
incarnated certain types of corporeal qualities\, gender performativity\,
and affect. The term was especially prevalent in the art discourse of the T
udeh Party’s\, Iran’s major Marxist organization\, which during its heydays
in 1940s\, was heavily invested in culture and arts as the media of politi
cs. Engaging major literary and artistic figures of the era\, the cultural
ventures of the party involved producing a number of publications on the to
pic\, and a range of performative forms including theatre\, music\, and cho
reographed political demonstrations those of which have greatly shaped Iran
ian cultural thought and performative politics to this day.
Focusing on the gendered and corporeal aspects of the term “degeneration” (ibtizal) and its binary oppositions “committed” and/or “artistic\,” this paper aims to historicize and unpack these terms in the Tudeh Party’s discourse on art s and public performative politics\, such as performing and visual arts\, p olitical demonstrations and meetings\, celebrations\, speeches\, political behavior\, and anthems. My primary sources for this study include documents and periodicals of the Tudeh Party as well as those belonging to the embas sy and consulate of the Soviet Union\, and organizations with strong ties t o it\, such as VOKS\, and memoirs of members of the Tudeh Party. An in-dept h analysis of these notions and the moral and aesthetic qualities they enta il is critically important for understanding contemporary Iranian arts\, cu ltural criticism\, and public political performance.
Ida Meft ahi is an assistant professor of Middle Eastern history at Boise S tate University\, where she teaches a range of interdisciplinary courses on Middle Eastern and Iranian history and culture. She holds a PhD from the U niversity of Toronto’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. She has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for the Arts and Human ities at Pennsylvania State University (2013–14)\, as well as a visiting as sistant professor of contemporary Iranian culture and society at the Univer sity of Maryland (2014-2019). Meftahi specializes in the history of modern Iran\, emphasizing the intersections of politics\, gender\, and performance (it its broader Goffmanian sense). She has presented and published her wo rk in a number of academic forums in different areas of the humanities and social sciences in North America\, Europe\, and the Middle East. Her first book\, Gender and Dance in Modern Iran: Biopolitics on Stage (2016 ) received the Association for Iranian Studies’ prestigious Latifeh Yarshat er Award for its original contribution to the field of Iranian women’s stud ies. With a unique approach to embodiment and vigorous historiography of un derstudied realms of urban popular culture\, Meftahi’s work has emerged as a frequent reference for recent academic inquiries into urban Iranian cultu ral history\, ethnomusicology\, and gender studies as well as cinema\, thea tre\, and dance studies. Building on over fifteen years of extensive intern ational archival and ethnographic research in Iran and around the world \, Meftahi is currently working on a second book project\, tentatively titled “Tulip Grove\, Tehran: Urban Geopolitics\, Gender\, and Performativ e Culture in Modern Iran.” The book features a detailed historical-anthropo logical investigation of Tehran’s historic Lalehzar Street and its vicinity between 1880 and 1960. It takes the lens of performance studies to the str eets and venues of this crucial zone of cultural production and diplomacy. “Tulip Grove\, Tehran” allows for a closer exploration of the interrelation s of cultural production and spectatorship\, religious and political practi ces\, as well as (face-to-face) social interactions in light of major histo rical local and international turning points.