Goldman's Genetic Structuralism as a Method of Critique for the Works of Visual Arts (Case Study of Qajar Period Photographs)

Antoin Sevruguin is an artist and photographer of the Qajar periodical that, despite having the king's attention and interest, could demonstrate a critical perspective, appeal and protest of the conscious and protesting class of the society, by displaying a subject in different strata of society through the camera. Lucien Goldmann, a structuralist sociologist and theorist, used this method in his innovative approach called "genetic structuralism". Therefore, finding the worldview of its work and its relation to a social class is the basis of the genetic structuralism. The library and documentary data collection method is used in this study. In this discourse, the researcher has attempted to find the hidden worldview of the works by using the genetic structuralism and link it to the influential social group and examine the relationship between them. In the following, using the components within the works and the meaningful structure of society, he answers the following question: What is the role of different classes in shaping the forms and themes of Qajar period photography? The results indicate that there is a dialectical relationship between the artwork and the class. Antoin Sevruguin in all his works used themes and concepts such as class differences, presentation of Shah's power and superiority, considering people inferior, misogyny in society, Western influence, ignorance and negligence, humor and disorder in the community, along with the role of the protest class in informing the people.