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From ritual to performance: Ta'zieh in Iran today
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2023
Abstract
As a practice and experience, ta'zieh lies at the crossroads between ritual and performance, collective lament and recollection, literature, and folklore. Focusing on the experience of the spectator, this paper discusses ta'zieh's liminal status and diverse functions in Iran today. This study is based on observations gathered during fieldwork in the fall of 2017 in Tehran (Grand Bazaar), Isfahan (Falāvarjān), and Kashan (Nushābād). By way of comparison, we further reflect on a video installation by Abbas Kiarostami presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2003, which challenges common assumptions about the aesthetic and religious effectiveness of ta'zieh. The contrast allows us to elucidate how, by renovating ancient narrative forms, contemporary Iranian performing arts partake in the shaping of individual affects as well as communal emotions.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Iranian Studies
Footnotes
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The initial draft of this paper was conceived and elaborated in close dialogue with Christian Biet, whose friendship and mentorship has contributed in many ways to shaping my own work throughout the years. After he passed away in July 2020, it was no easy task to take up the pen and finalize this article on my own. Despite some minor differences in views, Christian Biet's ideas and insights on ta'zieh remain essential to this piece, yet I take full responsibility for any changes in the final version.
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