Mobile Ta’ziyeh in the City Scene: Semiotic Study of Mobility in Ziaber Ta’ziyeh

Problem statement:

 Mobile Ta’ziyeh is regarded as one of the kinds of traditional Iranian theatre in which the scenes are performed not in a permanent place, but on a certain path. The present study aims to investigate how the discourse of Ta’ziyeh is formed in connection with the displacement of spatial boundaries and how this displacement emerges as a process that turns Ta’ziyeh into a performance with transformative function. In the current article, the interaction between the discourse of Ziaber Mobile Ta’ziyeh (case study) and the discourse of the city is studied. Also, the effects of performing Ta’ziyeh on the urban areas of Ziaber are investigated semiotically.

 The main purpose of this article is to identify the semiotic aspects of mobility in the Ta’ziyeh and its function in the transformation of urban places and spaces.

 The present article has been conducted through a qualitative method based on the Paris school semiotics. The research approach is derived from post-Gremassian tradition and is the result of the transition from structuralist and classical semiotics to semiotics based on “body”, “perception” and “presence” with a phenomenological background.

 The course of Ta’ziyeh Ziaber is formed by joining the three main locations of this city (cemetery, the main street, and house of Ayatollah Ziaberi). By examining the mobile nature of this Ta’ziyeh, it becomes clear how the mentioned places became narrative and move away from their previous functions and roles so that this cause transforms of places, spaces and also the transcendence of the city during the performance of Ta’ziyeh.