Textual Unconscious and Ideology in Three Plays by Bahram Bayzai

Unconsciousness was first used in psychology by Freud who used it to analyze patient’s mind. Freud applied this term to literature analysis for the first time and introduced it to literary studies. But in twentieth century and by emerging different critical approaches, the psychological terms were redefined and used for new purposes. For example political unconsciousness by Fredrick Jameson found new meaning and were distinguished from unconsciousness as it appears in Freud. This new concept was under the influence of Althusserian Marxism and Pierre Macherey’s theory. Althusser considers ideology as imaginary relation of subject with her real condition of existence. On the other hand he focuses on symptomatic reading which concerns the unsaid and silences. Macherey, Jameson and Eagleton use his theory and through changing them, provide a literary theory for analyzing unconscious and ideology in the text. This essay uses their theories for examining three plays by Bahram Beyzai: Sunset in a Foreign Land, The Story of a Hidden Moon, and Pahlavan Akbar Dies. This analysis considers the different ideologies in 1960’s in Iran and how they reflect in these plays. On the other hand it will be examined that how Beyzai uses “national art” and folklore theatre and how changes them to shed a new light on theatre.