میشل فوکو

This study analyzes the cinematic apparatus as a surveillance technology and examines its role in shaping, reproducing, and critiquing power relations in modern societies. Drawing inspiration from Michel Foucault’s theories, particularly the concept of the “panopticon,” and employing a deconstructive methodology, the research reveals the surveillance nature of cinema’s classic aesthetic structure by investigating the positioning of the camera, editing techniques, viewer-screen relationships, and producer-audience dynamics. The findings indicate that cinema has been aligned with modern surveillance paradigms from its inception, transforming surveillance from a threatening phenomenon into a consumerist experience by offering visual enjoyment and fulfilling the audience’s voyeuristic desires. Conversely, a self-aware form of cinema, referred to as “surveillance cinema,” critiques various dimensions of surveillance in modern societies by utilizing cinema’s inherent surveillance structure. The study demonstrates an interactive relationship between cinema and modern surveillance technologies, where cinematic language has inspired the design of surveillance technologies, while, advancements in these technologies have, in turn, influenced the development of new genres and the complex representation of surveillance in cinema. The presented analyses not only elucidate the connection between cinema and surveillance but also underscore the significance of widespread cinematic experiences among the masses in normalizing and accepting surveillance in modern societies. On the other hand, the potential of cinema to critique and expose the social, psychological, and political consequences of surveillance is also addressed. Finally, the study suggests a future research focus on analyzing how Iranian cinema portrays prevalent surveillance within its social context.

Dam-e Namari (The Invisible Trap, 1979) directed by Fariborz Saleh is a lesser-known film that was produced in the last year of the second Pahlavi government at the behest of the SAVAK, the intelligence organization of the time. Following the Islamic Revolution and the subsequent sociopolitical transformations in society, the film was buried in the Iranian film archive. With the recent unearthing of the film, the history of Iranian cinema has uncovered one of the earliest cinematic productions made by a security agency, which can be considered a pioneering example of surveillance cinema in Iran. Dam-e Namari narrates the story of identification and surveillance of Ahmad Mogharebi, a Major General of the Imperial Iranian Army who was a highly influential spy for the Soviet Union's security organization, known as the KGB. Throughout the narrative, SAVAK agents attempt to uncover the mysterious identity of Mogharebi and secretly monitor his covert actions using surveillance tactics. To this end, SAVAK expands its surveillance network across the entire neighborhood where the Mogharebi resides, employing a hierarchical observation strategy. It establishes a hidden watchtower in every house with a strategic view, aiming to control and track all movements within the entire region. Turning Mogharebi's neighborhood into a disciplined area could be seen as a geographical metaphor, suggesting that SAVAK aimed to expand this approach from a segmented city to a broader surveillance society. This serves as an allegory for a political will focused on total control and occupation of space, which, from Michel Foucault's perspective, finds its highest expression in the design of the Panopticon model. Panopticon is an architectural idea introduced by the 18th-century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. This modern prison was designed so that inmates were always under the gaze of a central authority. The spatial arrangements and lighting setups in the Panopticon are organized in such a way that, while the central observer remains hidden in the darkness, the prisoners' cells are continuously visible in the light. As a result, the prisoners in their cells are constantly monitored by an anonymous power. Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, interprets the mechanism of power in this model as a generalizable framework capable of explaining power relations in the everyday lives of individuals in modern societies. From his view, modern powers utilize the hierarchized surveillance present in Bentham's design to control individuals and maintain social order. Aligned with the prevailing ideology, the film aims to promote the government's Panopticism slogan by depicting the disciplinary order of the Pahlavi regime through the individualization and visibility of subjects via disciplinary and surveillance mechanisms. In this film, SAVAK attempts to represent itself as a virtual Panopticon, secretly capable of extending its invisible trap to render all citizens visible and therefore implicitly suggesting to the audience that they too might be under surveillance. Set on the brink of the Islamic Revolution, the film provides a powerful depiction of SAVAK's surveillance mechanisms and offers a utopian representation of a perfectly governed society under the pervasive gaze of the ruling power.

The present article analyzes the representation of surveillance in The Color Purple (2010) and Midday Adventures (2017) with an aesthetic approach. Regarding the idea of Panopticon surveillance, the selected movies for case study are two notable films in post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. Michel Foucault, the French thinker and historian of the 20th century, in his book, Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison, based on the idea of ​​the Panopticon prison, analyzes the concept of Panopticon surveillance. The Panopticon, a fundamentally new type of prison, was designed in the 18th century by Jeremy Bentham, an English utilitarian philosopher. This modern prison exposes the cells of prisoners to a supervisor who is hidden in the darkness of central tower. Foucault describes the surveillance mechanisms in the Panopticon as the surveillance mechanisms of modern political powers in order to maintaing sociopolitical order in society. In recent years, the discourse of surveillance influenced by the thoughts of Michel Foucault has formed a discussion about surveillance cinema in film studies. By reviewing the works of early cinema, the theoreticians of this field have confirmed the inherent links and affinities between surveillance and medium of cinema and have paid attention to thematic and structural ways of using it in films. Also they have studied the ways of using this concept in movies by emphasizing the affinity between the surveillance and the cinematic form. In this approach, they have paid attention to the moving from a thematic concern to structural engagement of surveillance in the aesthetic foundation of films. In Iranian cinema, one can find significant examples that have used the idea of Panopticon surveillance in an considerable way. The present research first tries to examine the idea of Panopticon surveillance in Michel Foucault's thought and in the next step to study the analytical approaches of film scholars in explaining the concept of surveillance cinema. At the end, by focusing on the selected films, the structural application of surveillance in these two works is examined. The findings of this research reveal that these two works have used structural elements in different ways to reflect the idea of surveillance in their aesthetic forms.

Ferdowsi, a renowned Persian poet, dedicated around thirty years to composing the Shahnameh. This masterpiece is a crucial guardian of the Persian language and Iranian culture. After writing the Shahnameh, it has always been the prevailing choice for illustration and pastiche writing, or Nazireh-nevisi. Nazireh-nevisi, literally meaning “writing poetry in the style of a famous poet,” is similar to the English term “Pastiche,” which means “imitating the style of an artist or work.” Book illustrations were created systematically within the royal libraries of Iran. The government had established a central institution to facilitate the production and patronage of art. Artists and poets had to liaise with the royal libraries to document their works. Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh has been depicted numerous times in various Iranian painting schools. Although the production and illustration of the book were very time-consuming and expensive, the rulers of the governments that dominated Iran in the Islamic period ordered the illustration of this book. They commissioned royal poets to create poetry books in the Shahnameh style. This article examines why the Shahnameh has been included in the cultural programs of various governments. The authors of this article seek to explain the reasons for the selection of Shahnameh for illustration and pastiche writing in different governments, using Michel Foucault’s theories of “Power.” The influential French thinker Michel Foucault extensively researched “power” and its societal workings, as well as how “truth” is constructed by power. Foucault’s perspective on power is unique in that he views its scope of influence as incredibly wide-reaching, encompassing everything from small institutions and human relationships to the greatest societal structures. Foucault posits that power is omnipresent and foundational in creating everything. He emphasizes a positive view of power, asserting, “Power produces, power produces truth.” Foucault perceives power as nurturing, productive, and beneficial rather than restrictive or destructive. As a result, it can be inferred that human civilization, along with all its scientific, social, moral, and artistic accomplishments, stems from and is influenced by power. If power couldn’t unite people around shared values and interests, societies wouldn’t have formed. Without society, civilization wouldn’t have flourished, and without civilization, discussing scientific, cultural, and artistic achievements would essentially be meaningless. The research results indicate that the Shahnameh text emphasizes specific values, offering significant opportunities to expand hegemony and validate power. Throughout history, those in power have utilized cultural potential to legitimize their authority. During this process, beliefs that support the legitimacy of the ruling power are chosen and accentuated from various aspects of society and culture. Contrarily, beliefs lacking these characteristics are marginalized and disregarded. The process described is observable in the illustrations and pastiche writings of Shahnameh during the Islamic royal dynasties of Iran. The beliefs such as the “confirmation of Farrah Izadi” (believing that the King is chosen and supported by God), the necessity of obeying the King, and confirming the centralized government are evident in the text of the Shahnameh. These beliefs provided significant opportunities for expanding the dominion and legitimizing the monarchy. It appears that the Islamic sultans in Iran during that period supported the Shahnameh to create the illusion that their monarchy was a direct continuation of the ancient Iranian kingdom, gaining cultural legitimacy. Less than a hundred years ago, during the modernization of Iran, thinkers suggested that the government could use the Shahnameh to instill a sense of national pride for political purposes. As a result, the government organized a large ceremony to honor Ferdowsi, aiming to spark interest in the ancient values of Iran and the Persian language.

Shutter Island is a movie that depicts the atrocities of the Second World War by the representation of the traumas inflicted on the modern man’s mind. In the movie Teddy Daniels is trapped in the labyrinth of psychiatry to recover from the trauma of his presence in concentration camps. Therefore, in Shutter Island, concentration camp and psychiatric asylum are intertwined by different images. According to Foucault, the formation of madhouses in modern society and the psychiatric authority on the patients is a means for insertion of modern power on man. He, indeed, believed that these power mechanisms were inserted in two levels. While the first level was psychiatric, the other method, lobotomy or brain surgery, was based on physiological alteration. Furthermore, Agamben introduced camp as a paradigm by which the Western states insert their power on man. He considers camp as the consequence of putting men in state of exception and the best condition for touching their physiological entity. Agamben believes that in this biopolitical procedure the deformed human bodies are made. He names this biological condition “bare life”. Bare life is “a biological condition in which the human is not dead or alive, but living on the opaque inhuman boundary of life and death. In Shutter Island the intertwinement of the images related to camp and psychiatric asylum shows that these two areas play a major role on the formation of Teddy’s identity as the contemporary man. Therefore, in this article, Foucault’s and Agamben’s ideas about the modern man’s formation of lifeworld are utilized. In this article, the intertwinement of camp and asylum images is studied by Jakobson’s and Lodge’s ideas about the entanglement of the metaphoric and metonymic poles. Accordingly, the interrelation of Foucault’s ideas about the formation of docile bodies and Agamben’s ideas about the infliction of “bare life” are used as the theoretical framework. This article clarifies that the process of formation of Teddy Daniel’s life is tantamount to the formation of bare life.

The present research aims to analyze the common traits and differences of knowledge system in these two works by comparative study of Euripides’ play Alceste and Froud’s story in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. Also, it seems that the findings of this research can be generalized to the analysis (induction) of the dominant discourse of power in the semantic structure governing the flourishing era of classical Greece as well as Iranian-Islamic culture of the 4th century Hijri. The theoretical framework of the topics presented will be taken from the thoughts of Michel Foucault, the late French philosopher, and his concepts such as episteme and discourse of power. The evaluation method of this research is also descriptive-analytical, and on this basis, the necessary data to measure the samples will be obtained in a library manner and with discourse analysis tools. The evidence obtained from this comparative study is indicative of the fact that despite the presence of similar components in the knowledge system of both works, in both the divine and human realms, the concepts of “destiny”, “death”, “love” and “wisdom” are fundamental points of difference. In explaining the discourse of power, they return to the type of their approach in accepting or rejecting the supreme power of God or Gods. In other words, despite the emphasis on the place of “destiny” and “death” in the heart of Forud’s story, the essence of Alceste’s play is the rejection of all that traditional discourse of power before it. In this work, a person will gain power who will be approved by the human discourse of power.

The Ilkhanate head of state due to their attendance in Iran, needed to legitimize themselves by any means conceivable. One feature of this legitimacy has been the protest of the power and potential aptitude of this people and their elected head of state to govern and wage war. Consequently, in this period, legitimacy is shaped based on the origin of power and "power" seems in the center of attention of historical books and Shahnamehs. Therefore, not only is the writing of historical books a tool for the legitimacy of the Mongols, but also the miniature and illustration of these books has been very operative in this direction. One of these books is Jami al-Tawarikh by Sheikh Fazlullah Hamedani, which will be studied as a case study with the approach of the concept of Foucault power. By means of the concept of power discourse, Foucault introduced a new technique for historical and social analysis and is now one of the most practical thoughts for genealogical analysis. In this regard, first Foucault's theories of power and discourse are scrutinized and on this basis the evolution of the place of power in Jami al-Tawarikh is inspected.Now this investigation intends to answer this main question based on library studies and descriptive-analytical method 1- Rendering to Foucault's theory of power, how did the power and dissertation of the Ilkhanate head of state give the impression in drawings of Jami al-Tawarikh? Based on this study, it was found that the exhibition of power in Mogul art in Jami al-Tawarikh has been in line with political issues and the presentation of the king's power, and history and art have been used as a tool to show power in political discourse.

Royal Portraiture is one of the last Iranian miniature styles which more or less can be considered a Synthesis Style of Iranian and European elements. This style was inspired by Westernization, but underwent important changes during the Qajar era. In this research, one tries to analyze and interpret one of its ruptures that occurred in the era of Mohammad Shah. The main issue of the present project is to study the ways this rupture and its consequences were occurred in Qajar visual culture. For this purpose, first, the main features of Royal Portraiture before and after the Fath-Ali Shah era were identified and then, the ways of the occurrence of this rupture were described. After that, based on Michel Foucault’s thoughts on the concept of the technique of power, the consequences of this rupture were examined. In this project, which was based on qualitative and analytical research method, after conducting studies, the result obtained from this study shows that the rupture of the Royal Portraiture was taken place in representation of body figure and in the discourse of chronology. The consequence was that, this rupture as a technique of power-record, in addition to reproducing this discourse, replaced metaphorical logic with realistic language in visual culture.

One of the most beautiful traditional gardens in Iran is Shahzadeh Mahan Garden. This garden has been registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and as an example of Persian gardening, it has a special importance and position at the international level. The purpose of this research is to explain the components of Foucault's heterotopia through spatial reinterpretation in Shahzadeh Mahan garden. In this article, an attempt has been made to examine the structure and concept of heterotopia in Shahzadeh Mahan garden and extract native components. The research method used is comparative descriptive research method, which examines library documents. This article tries to answer the main research question: That is, "How are the components of heterotopia objectified in the definition of Shahzadeh Mahan garden?" The findings state that in this place, the ultimate material is elevated to spiritual infinity. The main result of this article can be summarized in the placement of the Persian garden with objectivity to the heterotopias of memory, presence, inclusive society, cultural, value-oriented and nature-oriented, for the spiritual presence of man. Therefore, the possibility of heterotopia is a place attachment and the formation of an emotional relationship with the place of the garden.

Foucalt sees the social background of context as an environment that the power relations or intractions are incessantly counteracting and contradicting one another. Such relations according to Foucault include restriction, erosion and dominance and would never reach anywhere and will be replaced by the new dominance. Moreover, From the point of view of Foucault, resistance is an inevitable part of power relations. Foucault ,in the article «subject and power « has elucidated his objective from power analysis and ultimately Dreyfus and Rabinow have presented a theory and Mercure also confirmed and verified it. They believed that the objective and goal of Foucault from the elucidation of power analysis is learning the method of it›s function , not making a theory of power. He was willing to study the context in which power relations form or are involved in it›s formation and the tools by which power is wielded. For Foucault has been very important to learn and reveal the network of relations behind the rules and the works of the political philosophers. These works are more after displaying how the power divulges or reveals itself. While Foucault believed that power is dominated logically not on the objects but on free subjects and it is wielded as long as until they are free. The goal of this research is presenting the representation of this concept and its pertinent rules and regulations . The social atmosphere and the characters of three plays ,The letter and way of facing these characters with the mentioned power are the instances and cases of the Foucault›s power have been studied. After collecting the cases and instances of these concept , the rules and conditions of the flow of this mentioned power and the hierarchy and the necessary reactions of that analysis are mentioned in three tables finally.The result of this research shows that among these two types of power , one is traditional and the other one more a modern type that are in harmony with the theory of power by Foucault. The three dramas of Akbar Radi and their social atmosphere are correspond with the view of the Foucault on power.

Space is a multi-dimensional concept that is at once economic, political, semiotic and experiential, and in this sense it is an integral component of social interaction and an indispensable vector for critical theories. After 1980’s knowledge of space has become critical to understanding the production and transformation of power relations, and in this regard the built environment is an important concept for any endeavor in social analysis. This paper explores the possibilities for development of social theories of space-power based on the theories of Michelde Foucault, coupled with methods of content analysis of urban spaces.The aim of this article is to explore how political poweris constructed in urban spaces, and how these construction processes might be conceptualised and analysed. The paper begins by exploring the Foucault theories of power-space to analyse and interpret the relationship between urban space and political power: how political powers implement to shape urban spaces, and improve their authority and legitimacy through spaces, in turn. These strategies can be defined in spatial technologies through founding of spatial structural and functional principles.Grounded on this analythical and interpretative study of Foucault theories of space and power relations, this paper seeks to demonstrate a conceptual framework which can be adapted to urban spaces content analyzing. The achievement of this research is to develop an appendant analysing method to elaborate a tool for the meaning analysis of spaces in architecture and urban design studies. This methodology is applied in a case study sample. The main strategies which are explored in the theoretical-based part of this study are tested in Naghsh e Jahan Squere’, a historic squerein the city of Isfahan, during Safavid era, specially the reign of Shah Abbas.

Nowadays, each person is exposed to a large amount of advertising every day. Given the role these ads play in determining people’s lifestyle, it is essential to gain greater awareness of how urban advertising works. It causes a greater control over environment and a better understanding of the society. One of the essential functions of urban advertising is the role it plays in shaping public discourse in society and this study investigates this important issue. In present study, enjoying a descriptive-analytical approach, Owj Arts and Media Organization’s urban ads, selected purposefully, were studied and analyzed from Foucault’s perspective, using discourse analysis. Discourse understanding is a tool for understanding different streams of knowledge leading to the emergence, change, dissolution, or displacement of an object in the context of power or knowledge. In fact, what makes Foucault’s approach comparable to artistic research is his understanding of object production, which is parallel to form production in visual art in which urban advertising is like the forms of discourse. Therefore, the method of data collection is documentary-observational. This study aims to understand the conceptual-visual formulation of Owj Organization’s discourse in the light of the existing knowledge network and it seeks to answer these questions. How are the world, social reality, subjects and objects constructed in Owj Organization’s advertising discourse? How do the visual elements contained in Owj Organization’s advertising define the audience within discourse structures? Since in discourse analysis, in order to understand how subjects and objects are constructed in discourse structures, it is the discourse itself which is analyzed, the analyst in the study did not seek to find precise answers to research questions or discover the truth. Therefore, the performance of the discourse structures is analyzed only to illustrate how discourses shape human understanding of reality and how the boundaries between truth and error are drawn. The research generally shows that although the subject is constantly changing in the organization’s advertising and the audience is exposed to a variety of social, religious and family themes, what is always preserved is the use of images and themes which the viewer is familiar with and can communicate with. According to the research findings, concepts such as martyrdom, solidarity, generosity, religion, and patriotism are reproduced in the organization’s common discourse. The aim of this reproduction is to create belief and return to those values as well as to reproduce the desired discourses and prevent their removal. This is achieved through the use of visual elements to depict the human beings’ presence in the desired discourse, the use of symbols which have become meaningful in the historical context of that discourse, the elimination of the boundary between discourses in terms of time and place and the meaningful and truthful statements in common discourse. Examining the visual elements and form analysis, extracting the statements and analyzing the written texts indicate that the individuals, within the discourse context and through discourse structures, become involved in their roles and become subjects according to the object of each discourse

In the Qajar period, “power” has been the focus of Qajar iconography, and is one of the topics that have been widely used. In the contemporary period we have witnessed the development of theories of theory and its relation to the art of painting over the last few decades. Ali is dealt with. Using the concept of power discourse, Foucault introduced a new way of analyzing his historical and social context and is now one of the most applied ideas for the analysis and study of paleontology and genealogy. The hypothesis of this study is the evolution of the meaning of power and its place in Qajar iconography and in the works of Mehrali. In pursuit of this question, Foucault’s theories of power and discourse are first explored, exploring the evolution of the position of power in Mehr Ali’s painting. The content of this study is qualitative and is based on descriptive-analytical methodology and library collection method. The results show that the display of power in Qajar art in the works of Mehrali paintings is in line with the political issues and the display of the Shah’s power and the painting has been used as a tool for displaying power in political discourse. At a glance at early Qajar paintings, one can find less art that is not involved in showing the power of Fath Ali Shah. Accordingly, the main focus of this research is on the profound developments that have taken place in the art of Qajar painting in the field of power in the first period, in the works of Mehr Ali, and which have influenced the Qajar period for many years. One can see how the aforementioned evolution continued and influenced Qajar art in the second period. With this explanation, the following article is based on the assumption of the transformation of the position of power and discourse in the works of Mehrali as the painter of the Qajar court. Power in the works of Mehrali paintings is in line with the social and political conditions of the Qajar era, and Hulat chose Mehrali because he painted most of the figurative paintings of Fath Ali Shah for sending in and out of Iran. He changed the laws of painting by Mirza Baba, and this must have been “with the consent of Fath-Ali Shah. The basis of this study is to answer the following questions: What political context does Shahr-e-Qajar use to show power?” What is the meaning of power in Foucault’s perspective in the works of Mehrali and the iconography of the Qajar and the discourse of power? To answer these questions, the first part of this article first examines Foucault’s theories and his ideas on power and discourse. In the second part of the article, the Qajar iconography and the works of Mehrali are discussed. Reflections on the transformations of power with the works of Mehrali paintings and the influences of the West and the transformation of power in his paintings The purpose of this study is to study the power of Qajar paintings in the works of Mehrali, the cause and necessity of this topic. In painting, Qajar is a political tool.

The entrance of modern thought from the constitutional era and the spread of leftist discourse, which promoted social commitment in the literary and artistic works, led to developments in modernist Iranian painting during the Second Pahlavi era. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of left discourse on the form and content of paintings and to analyze the reasons for the lack of development of artistic tendencies of this historical period as an influential tendency in modernist Iranian art. The theoretical approach of this paper is based on the concept of power discourse in Michel Foucault's views, the method of descriptive-analytical research and the meth-od of collecting information through library method. According to the research, leftist artists, despite the social content in their works, due to components such as domi-nation of modernism discourse, lack of coherent art form, thoughtless modeling and without any intrinsic relation to our cultural-insights and sometimes an incomplete un-derstanding of the meaning of commitment in art, the external commitment for artists to create works with political and social content that contradicts the concept of com-mitted art - the most important of which is the artist's inner and emotional obligation without external pressure - led to lack of connection of works with the audience of the era, and eventually this discourse did not become a lasting and influential style. These artists presented social themes in a variety of approaches, such as the use of imitation styles of Western art and another of the stereotypical style, which was a raw imitation of Soviet realist artists. But perhaps one of the most important achieve-ments of leftist discourse was to direct the critical art that demand the ideals of justice and maintained its influence for a long time in power discourse.

In a number of plays by Mohammad Yaghoubi, </span>discussed in this article, </span>he tries to display a kind of awareness leap in a series of human and social relationships through his signature dramatic elements. </span>These leaps in social relations are also in line with parallel historical leaps traceable in all his dramatic elements. </span>For instance, </span>in The Winter 66 </span>the historical leap arises from war conditions: conditions that cause uncertainties about the death and life of characters. </span>These uncertainties do not just emanate from offenses suffered outside the characters’ </span>household, </span>but also affected by their domestic uncertainties. </span>Yaghoubi depicts these internal disruptions in connection with external disruptions in a variety of forms. </span>For example, </span>with successive wobbles that is brought upon the fervent atmosphere of the household, </span>or interrupted, </span>recurring dialogues or with parallel narratives crossing each other from point to point.</span>
The theories adopted here are taken from concepts such as the configuration of knowledge or episteme, </span>archaeology, </span>genealogy, </span>discourse, </span>power and resistance, </span>offered by Michel Foucault, </span>the French philosopher, </span>historiologist and semiotician. </span>The questions raised in this study are first, </span>why Yaghoubi depicts awareness leaps in the everyday lives of the characters’ </span>social, </span>historical context? </span>Second, </span>how Yaghoubi depicts the awareness leaps in the various elements of his plays? </span>The purpose of this study is to reflect on the relation between drama, </span>history, </span>society, </span>and politics based on a well-</span>known theory. </span>On this basis, </span>the selected Yaghoubi works studied here are Drought and Lies, </span>The Only Possible Way, </span>One Minute of Silence, </span>and The Winter 66. </span></div>

The “neo-traditionalist” discourse has appeared following the general strategies of the power structure and the mindset of the intellectuals in contemporary Iranian art. Intellectuals mental support of the creation of an anti-west-toxification (a derogatory term used for westernization) discourse and returning to former ways, and also the support of power structure for creation of a neo-traditionalist discourse, directs the artists to a path of differentiating the modernist Iranian art from the western modern art. In such a circumstance, it is obvious that artists would accept their position in the predominant discourse, and legitimize themselves by it.
Analyzing the relationship between the level of artists’ (neo-traditionalist) discourse and the levels of other intellectual and institutional discourses in the contemporary Iranian art and critiquing the influence of these levels on each other are the objectives of this study.
The research method is analyticaldescriptive- historical and the data is collected through documentary research method. The overall approach and theoretical framework is based on some of the concept in of Michel Foucault’s historicism, the French philosopher of the twentieth century

Harold Pinter is widely regarded as one of the most influential representatives of British theatre in the twentieth century. The significance of his tremendous contribution to modern theatre has been summed up in one theatrical terminology, namely, “Pinteresque”. Though Pinter’s plays are characteristic of minimal plots and limited characters, the dialogues are filled with powerful tension. Power, however, is not only an important element, but also a recurrent theme in his plays in many ways. Indubitably, there are power struggles between dominating and dominated characters in his plays. Aligned with the French philosopher Michel Foucault’s theory of discourse and power, this article analyzes one early play by Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party, arguing that the characters in this play possess strong desire for power, which makes them aware of the menace all around. What is more, the reflection of power exhibited in The Birthday Party anticipates Pinter’s radical anti-hegemony politics in his later period.