Postcolonial Cinematic Adaptation, Mimicry, or Indigenization? Miller’s Death of a Salesman in Farhadi’s Salesman

Various adaptations are found in the history of Iranian cinema. The connection between Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman (2016) and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949) was reviewed disparagingly and appraisingly in Iran and the West. Finding the cause of the tension between these contradictory discourses is the main purpose of this paper. With a post-colonial approach, especially with regard to Homi Bhabha’s (1949- ) views, we scrutinize The Salesman to clarify the relationship between the West and the East in Iranian cinema. It is revealed that Farhadi’s adaptation is a mimicry of Miller’s Death of a Salesman; with a close comparative analysis of the text of the play and Farhadi’s film, it is concluded that The Salesman is not merely a Bhabhaian mimicry of an American play but a third space that floats between the concepts of indigenization and mimicry. The interweavement of Western and Iranian cultural and social elements in this film creates a work that is tangible for both the Iranian and the Western audience.