An Essay on Ontology of Symbolic Concept of Home in Mehrjoui's Movies

Human has a meaningful connection with his dwelling place. By upbuilding and constructing, he is seeking to find his foothold in the world. In other words, the home in which a man lives, is not just a few square meters of the land and a roof over his head, but it is a place of peace, rest and establishment of his being. Home gives to the man possibility of daydreaming and so, the man symbolizes his inner intentions and creates meaning through building home and making it in the form of artwork. Actually, human being appertains to the world and by building a home, he makes his affiliation palpable. On the other hand, first intention of home is meaning association. So, in the ontological thoughts, Home is the place of identification, authentication and symbol of the human self. It is worth noting, that the purpose of the home in this research is not its architectural and functional aspects, but here is concerned to meaning and concept of home; this refers to those aspects of home that originate of man as a meaning conceptualizer and differ from its instrumental and technical aspects. Therefore, Home as an ontological foundation has a meaningful presence in Dariush Mehrjui’s movies. On context of the conflict between tradition and modernity, this concept in his works is under influence of Dariush Shayegan’s thoughts. In this paper, the authors have attempted to describe and explain the concept of Home in Mehrjui’s movies and orientation of his movies characters in transition between tradition and modernity; the basis of Shayegan’s argument is the analysis of oriental/Iranian man in relation to the occident. He brings up this relation in context of our retardation or historical distance with west part of world. Also, the question in Dariush Mehrjui’s films is what the obligation of Iranian human is in confrontation whit demands of modern society. According to Darius Shayegan’s idea, eastern )Iranian( human has been suffered schizophrenia and psychosis in confronting with Western modernity that has shown in women and men faces and conditions of Mehrjui’s movies in related to privative or affirmative presence of Home. He settles in the group of filmmakers that created a critical stream in filmmaking known as the new wave of Iranian cinema in 1960 and 1970. Concepts such as “alienation”, “Schizophrenia”, “conflict between tradition and modernity”, and also “cultural conflict” are exposed in Mehrjui’s movies, concepts that we can find and study them in the works of Darius Shayegan. Theoretical framework in this study has two bases. The first is based on ontological search of the Home in works of thinkers such as Christian Norberg-Schulz, Amos Rappaport and Carl Gustav Jung and second base includes Dariush Shayegan’s ideas at study of condition and positioning of Iranian human in confronting or transition from tradition to modernity. Data analysis method in this study is adaptive- analysis and information gathering have been conducted by referring to the written sources and watching the Movies. The result of this study is that the how home in Mehrjui’s movies represents the orientation, identity, mood and mental condition of characters.