Virtual space and social media studies

Virtual space and social media studies

The new urban subalterns as narrated by Iranian cinema (Life and A day, Sheeple)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Jamal Mohammadi 1
Pooneh Fahraji 2
Soomayeh Karimipoor 3
1 Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
2 PH.D of Sociology,
3 M.A. of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
10.22083/cssms.2025.496087.1026
Abstract
The aim of the current research is to analyze the neo-formalist ways of narrating the life of Farudestan in the lower part of the city in Iran's 1990s cinema. The theoretical approach of the research is derived from theories in the field of cinema studies that explore the nature of cinematic representation and its relationship with the social issue. The study method is Bordwell and Thompson's model in neoformalism, which analyzes the four levels of meanings in works of art. Among the films released in the genre of down-town cinema in the 1990s of Iranian cinema, two films, Abed and Yek Roz and Small Rusty Brains, have been selected for study. The results of the analysis show that the narration of Farudestan in the cinema of the lower city of the nineties has fundamental differences with the cinematic narrations of these strata in the previous decades. The downtrodden in the 1990s are neither sanctified nor have the possibility and ability to free themselves from the downtrodden state, but they are subjects trapped in a kind of vicious cycle of poverty and misery, whose beginning and end of life are completely the same. Not only the concrete and symbolic spaces of the lower city are conflicting, tense and fragmented, but the wear and tear carved on these spaces has caused the lives of activists to be full of violence, tension and conflict. Violence and constant tension are recurring motifs in both works. The fast rhythm of life along with tense dialogues and noisy monologues is an inseparable feature of the symbolic interactions of the activists of these spaces. In general, the emergence of a different genre of cinema in the 1990s indicates a profound change in the concrete situation of Farudestan, which can no longer be narrated with the themes and motifs of the cinema of the previous decadeس.
Keywords
Neo-formalism
subalterns
the cinema of the lower city
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Virtual space and social media studies
Volume 1, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
Winter 2025
Pages 139-172

  • Receive Date 26 December 2024
  • Revise Date 18 January 2025
  • Accept Date 08 February 2025
  • First Publish Date 08 February 2025
  • Publish Date 19 February 2025