نشریه جامعه شناسی هنر و ادبیات
سال چهارم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1391)

This paper aims to study and formulate the field of literature in Iran during 1921 and 1941. For this purpose, the authors have focused on two key writers of this period, Mohammad Hejazi and Sadegh Hedayat. Analyzing the social positions, habitus and literary works of these writers can help us to have a clear picture of the mentioned period. It also can show dominant poles in the literary field in Iran. We have used Pierre Bourdieu’s “Practice Theory” as our theoretical framework and his “genetic structuralism” as our methodology. Mohammad Hejazi was born in a middle-class bourgeois family. He served as a senator for several periods and deputy of prime minister for some years. Thus he had politically a high position in the period under study. Also, as a novelist, he wrote about rich families, especially bourgeois girls. Despite this, he did not have any valuable capital that would bring him a remarkable position in the literary field. His position was located in the dominated pole and in the bourgeois literature position. In addition, when studying his habitus, one would face an optimistic and conservative person. In short, there is a homology between his positions in the fields of power and literature and his habitus. In one of Hejazi’s novels titled Homa, one can find a homology between the writer’s positions in the fields of power and literature and his habitus with hero’s positions in the power and action fields of story and his habitus. Like Hejazi, Sadegh Hedayat was also born in a middle-class bourgeois family. But his position in his family as the younger son let him to pursue his own way. Actually he never held any important politiposition. He never got married and finally committed suicide. Thus he had no political position. But Hedayet is a famous writer because he wrote some valuable novels. He had important cultural capitals. He never wrote for others; rather he used to write for himself. Thus Hedayat had a main position in the dominant pole of literary field. Furthermore, when considering his habitus, one would face a pessimistic, disobedient, independent character. In short, there is a homology between Hedayat’s positions in the fields of power and literature and his habitus. In Hedayat’s famous novel, Boofe koor, one can find a homology between writer’s positions in the fields of power and literature and his habitus with hero’s positions in the power and action fields of story and his habitus. According to our study, Hejazi and Hedayat have had opposite positions in the fields of power and literature and have opposite habitus. In other words, these two famous writers had opposite social trajectories. In addition, we can trace these oppositions in writers’ novels. Heroes have opposite positions in each story and have opposite habitus. At last, we have to consider that all characteristics of Hedayat and Hejazi have to be understood in relation to their social positions and habitus rather than their own special life histories.

According to Bourdieu’s cultural theory, the author’s trajectory reflects the dialectical relationship between his or her habitus and conditions of the literary field in a given historical situation. Habitus is dialectically tied to the field and constructed with different capitals. In an author’s habitus, cultural capital plays the main role as the most significant capital. The field of literary production prepares an appropriate atmosphere in which the author breaths, grows and gains his or her literary capitals. The literary field is distinguished from other fields by cultural capital as its currency. The different conditions of the field can be displayed on a spectrum from the heterogeneous pole in one side to the homogenous pole in the other side. Different conditions of the literary field reveal a variety of relationships between this field and the field of power. If the field of power respects the borders of the literary field and does not invade its territory, the pure literature will emerge in the pole of limited production. Otherwise, the literary field loses its independence and leads to the production of committed literature in the pole of mass production. In this article, the trajectory of Simin Daneshvar’s literary life as the first woman novelist has been sociologically quested. Simin Daneshvar’s trajectory results from her positions in the Iranian literary field during different historical periods. These various positions that illustrate her literary trajectory depend on the dialectical relationship between her hapitus in one hand, and the conditions of the literary field in the other hand. To distinguish the share of various capitals in the author’s habitus, the process of its construction is explored. These investigations regard the dialectical relationship between the literary field and the author’s habitus, following genetic structuralism as a method that studies the genesis of habitus and field with a historical approach. Based on Bourdieu’s theoretical and methodological approaches, three novels of Simin Daneshvar have been studied, adapting to her positions in the literary field during different periods. The structural homologies between Daneshvar’s habitus, the literary field and the worlds of novels are obviously apparent in the selected novels. According to Simin Daneshvar’s several biographies, she was expertise in Iranian literature as well as the world literature when she was writing her first novel. This balanced combination of inner and outer cultural capitals allowed Daneshvar to write a creative novel that not only provoked literary critics to consider it as an important event, but also promoted her status in the field of literary production. Regarding Simin Daneshvar trajectory, she occupied the centre of the literary field with her first novel, Savushun (1969) but she could not retain it with her two other novels— Wandering Island [Jazire-ye Sargardāni] (1992) and Wandering Cameleer [Sāreban-e Sargardān] (2001). This article concludes that the decline of cultural capitals in Daneshver’s habitus and distortion of the literary field are major factors that cause her loss of status in this field. After publication of Savushun that unpleasantly coincided with Jalal Al-Ahmad’s death, she could not update her knowledge on the contemporary movements in literature and her cultural capitals begun to decrease, at least compared to her past. Besides, the literary field had lost its independence and its golden age. The dialectical relationship between these factors propelled Simin Daneshvar’s position in the literary field, from the center to the margins. This trajectory is represented in her novels and their protagonists. Indeed, there is a structural homology between Simin Daneshvar’s trajectory in the field of literary production and the protagonists’ trajectories in the world of her novels.

All along history, the art and society always have interplayed. Literary works especially novel are rooted in contemporary society and tell us about social, political, cultural and historical issues of a society. A realistic novel may reflect realities of its time like a mirror. The sociology of literature is aimed to explain the links between society and literature and clarifying the quality of reflection of social realities in literary works. Lukacs and Goldman as greatest theorist of sociological critique of literature tried to show the interplay between social structures and literary structures. They believed novel is a reflection of social life in writers’ time and originates from writers ideology. Sadegh Hedayat is a realistic contemporary Iranian writer. The main theme of his stories is social life of his time and we can see this in his Hajiagha. This paper studies Sadegh Hedayat’s “Haji Agha” applying the reflection of reality theory. The ability of the writer to portray the social transformations of his time is discussed. All along history, the art and society always have interplayed. Literary works especially novel are rooted in contemporary society and tell us about social, political, cultural and historical issues of a society. A realistic novel may reflect realities of its time like a mirror. The sociology of literature is aimed to explain the links between society and literature and clarifying the quality of reflection of social realities in literary works. Lukacs and Goldman as greatest theorist of sociological critique of literature tried to show the interplay between social structures and literary structures. They believed novel is a reflection of social life in writers’ time and originates from writers ideology. Sadegh Hedayat is a realistic contemporary Iranian writer. The main theme of his stories is social life of his time and we can see this in his Hajiagha. This paper studies Sadegh Hedayat’s “Haji Agha” applying the reflection of reality theory. The ability of the writer to portray the social transformations of his time is discussed.

In this paper the sociological approach of Janet Wolff and John Thompson is used to identify and interpret the relationship between the evolution of Persian carpet and its social context. The social context includes socio-economic, ideologican and political conditions surronding this evolution. To study Persian carpet from the Pazric rug from its initiation to the present time, based on numorous historical and specialised data, we have to focus on a certain period of Iranian history which led to the transformation of Iranian carpet in terms of all its characteristics including production method, production quantity, designs and plan. If we look at Iranian carpet as a cultural sign, an important question comes to our mind is that “if this artistic sign, that is Persian carpet, has been changed during Safavid era, under what conditions and in what social, ideological and economical fields, this change has happened? In contrast to some aesthetical and traditional findings, using a sociological approach and based on an analysis of social and ideological orders, we suggest that Iranian carpet is a complicated mixture of historical, societal and ideological factors. Our findings show that while before the period under investigation, carpet has been considered only as a means of living. During the Safavid Dynasty, it gained a distinguished artistic status and was considered as a national skill and therefore a national pride. This change in status occurred under spesific social conditions which the authors of the present article have attempted to explain.In this paper the sociological approach of Janet Wolff and John Thompson is used to identify and interpret the relationship between the evolution of Persian carpet and its social context. The social context includes socio-economic, ideologican and political conditions surronding this evolution. To study Persian carpet from the Pazric rug from its initiation to the present time, based on numorous historical and specialised data, we have to focus on a certain period of Iranian history which led to the transformation of Iranian carpet in terms of all its characteristics including production method, production quantity, designs and plan. If we look at Iranian carpet as a cultural sign, an important question comes to our mind is that “if this artistic sign, that is Persian carpet, has been changed during Safavid era, under what conditions and in what social, ideological and economical fields, this change has happened? In contrast to some aesthetical and traditional findings, using a sociological approach and based on an analysis of social and ideological orders, we suggest that Iranian carpet is a complicated mixture of historical, societal and ideological factors. Our findings show that while before the period under investigation, carpet has been considered only as a means of living. During the Safavid Dynasty, it gained a distinguished artistic status and was considered as a national skill and therefore a national pride. This change in status occurred under spesific social conditions which the authors of the present article have attempted to explain.

This paper is an attempt to indicate how constitutionalism discourse is formed and what is its effect on Qajar pictorial rules, considering Lacla and Mouffe’s discourse theory. Laclau and Mouffe consider social relations as a discursive construction but this construction is never finished or complete. There are always other meaning potentials which can challenge and transform the structure of the discourse. They have constructed their theory by combining and modifying two major theoretical traditions, Marxism and structuralism. They created theoretical concepts like “articulation”, “nodal point”,”floating signifier”,”element”, “moment” “chains of equivalence”,”chains of difference” and they mentioned that a discourse attempts to collect series of the signs in a relational net and fix meaning in a partial way, therefore it creates unified system of meaning. Each discourse establishes a totality in which sign is fix as a moment through its relations to other signs or as a fishing-net. This is done by the exclusion of all other possible meanings that the sings could have had.According to this approach we will discuss three period of Iran’s history by considering and contemplating newspapers. Especially we will highlight the conflict between the government’s discourse and the opposition’s discourse in these periods: first Naseredin-Shah period that was the longest one under Qajar dynasty, second Mozafaredin-Shah period and third MohammadAli-Shah period. It seems that pre_constitutionalism is made by articulation of “law” and signifiers such as “reformation”,”justice”,”freedom” and this discourse threatened government’s discourse which was earlier made by articulation of “king” and signifiers like “king’s will”, “security”,”convenience”,” villein”, and “order”. Pictures of this period changed by two ways: king’s portrait becomes more natural and realistic and gradually ordinary people appear on paintings and photography. In second period, constitutionalism established a hegemonic discourse. we can see “king” as a “master signifier” which is moved to the place of articulating of two antagonistic discourses. Some signifiers were added in the opposition discourse like “court of justice” and”parliament”. We can also follow patriotic text in this period. In the pictures we will notice paintings of king’s body which is less important than the Naseredin-Shah period. For example Kamal-ol-Molk who was a famous court painter in that time said”I painted portrait of Mozafaredin-Shah just for one time”. On the other hand, we can see an important change in Mozafaredin-Shah’s photos. Some of these photos show us that king has lost center of the pictures. If we don’t know Mozafaredin-Shah we can’t understand where is the king ‘s portrait in the pictures. Discursive antagonism increased in Mohammad-ali-Shah period. The “king” and “the parliament” are two nodal points which struggle to fix their meanings. We can see two other important signifiers like “independence” and “nation” are added in the opposition’s discourse but government’s discourse is not changed at all. Thus because of that high antagonism which caused two discourses collide together, signs of violence such as gun, dead body and blood appeared on the pictures and postal cards.

Music is a social phenomenon that is in conjunction with many aspects of human beings’ life today. In recent years, some forms of music have become widespread that are not from indigenous origins. Indeed, these are new forms that challenge Iranian cultural values. Meanwhile, youth are the main consumers of these forms of music. Because many of youth who are heavy consumers of music are living inTehran as capital of Iran, and these youth in recent years favored new forms of music including underground music, we decided to analyze this phenomenon in this paper. The main question of research is why these forms of music became widespread in society? We were interested o understand whether there were needs in society that contributed to heavy consumption of these new forms of music. Theoretically, we applied uses and gratification approach. We selected 264 third grade high school students from female and male high schools in Tehran’s 3rd, 8th and 18th areas as research sample and surveyed them. A researcher’s constructed questionnaire was used to gather the required data. The results showed that, Cognitive Personal Integrative, and Affective Needs have powerful impact on music consumption respectively.Music is a social phenomenon that is in conjunction with many aspects of human beings’ life today. In recent years, some forms of music have become widespread that are not from indigenous origins. Indeed, these are new forms that challenge Iranian cultural values. Meanwhile, youth are the main consumers of these forms of music. Because many of youth who are heavy consumers of music are living inTehran as capital of Iran, and these youth in recent years favored new forms of music including underground music, we decided to analyze this phenomenon in this paper. The main question of research is why these forms of music became widespread in society? We were interested o understand whether there were needs in society that contributed to heavy consumption of these new forms of music. Theoretically, we applied uses and gratification approach. We selected 264 third grade high school students from female and male high schools in Tehran’s 3rd, 8th and 18th areas as research sample and surveyed them. A researcher’s constructed questionnaire was used to gather the required data. The results showed that, Cognitive Personal Integrative, and Affective Needs have powerful impact on music consumption respectively.

Iranian cinema has shown various and different pictures of Iranian society in different periods and from appearance time up to now. Iranian society has been changed indifferent features such as social, cultural and economic as well as all changing society in recent decades. One of the social variants is the concept of the life style to understand Iranian contemporary changes. We Community in recent years with the development and growth of consumerism and mass production of goods and thanks to the media, communications and advertising wave of consumerism in various forms has been a new phenomenon.Expansion of consumption and consumerism in recent years and given it less attention to the discussion of the production of identity and social distinctions the essential characteristic of consumer society to advance our lifestyle as well.We tried to consider the Representaed life style in 80’s cinema in this article by using Representation theory in art sociology in the first onset and then by performing Bourdieu’s explanation pattern in life style.Bourdieu utilized his data to construct a model of stratified lifestyles based on differing cultural tastes-legitimate, middle-brow, and popular. He describes taste as the capacity to materially or symbolically appropriate a given class of objects and practices as a set of distinctive preferences (1984, p. 173)While the habitus produces lifestyles, lifestyles themselves are viewed by Bourdieu as a system of classified and classifying practices involving differing tastes. These practices consist of particular forms of dress, food, music, art, sport, leisure activities, and so on-all of which express class, gender, and ethnic distinctions. While lifestyles, including health lifestyles, can spread across class boundaries (Cockerham et al. 1988), they typically originate in or are distinctive to a particular status group.According to Hall, Representation theories fall into three general categories. 1- Theories of reflection 2- The Intentional theories 3-theories constructed. We focused our research on the representation of the third aspect of the theory is construction. A third approach is consistent with the general features of language and social Hal knows.. Based on this approach, things have no sense of self we create meaning through a system of representation and action concepts and symbols do.The construction does not negate the existence of the material world. But that is not what the material world carries the meaning of Langue, or system that we use to express their ideas Enhancing transport mean and this activists have their own culture and the conceptual system of linguistic and other representational systems are used to construct meaning Significant global And in association with others to build. In order to achieve aforesaid goal, after taking samples from the produced films in 80’s by using content analysis method and also after defining subjects and indexes, a reversed questionnaire was prepared and the data was gathered through watching considered films. To consider the films the same sequence, which was equivalent to the scene in narrative films, was analyzed. The results show that cultural usage among life style features, allocates the most rate of Representation in80 ’s cinema for itself. Hereafter, the other features are: perceptions, leisure times, body management, morality worth priority, costing habits and food usage manner. Finally, we have compared our findings with previous research findings.