Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:15:11.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dialogues with the Dead: Necropoetics of Zahra’s Paradise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2022

Fatemeh Shams Open the ORCID record for Fatemeh Shams [Opens in a new window]
Fatemeh Shams*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What can the poetry chosen for epitaphs on graves tell us about the political and cultural development of post-revolutionary Iran and the politics of death and dying under the Islamic Republic? This article explores contemporary Persian epitaph poetry as a valuable medium for understanding the socio-political dynamics of Iranian society. By analyzing the epitaphs of the Iran–Iraq war martyrs, who are buried in Zahra’s Paradise public cemetery in Tehran (Behesht-e Zahra), a new nomenclature can be established for the religious, political and socio-cultural ideas underpinning death and the afterlife.

Keywords

Behesht-e Zahra CemeteryIran–Iraq WarNecropoliticsNecropoetics
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 5-6 , December 2020 , pp. 893 - 909
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdulghani, J.M., Iraq and Iran: The Years of Crisis. London: Croom Helm, 1984.Google Scholar
Abrahamian, Ervand, “Ali Shariati: Ideologue of the Iranian Revolution.” In Islam, Politics, and Social Movements, ed. Burke, Edmund, and Lapidus, Ira, 25–28. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Afshar, Iraj, Yadegarha-ye Yazd: moʿarrefi-ye abniyeh-ye tarikhi va asar-e bastani. Yazd: Khaneh-ye ketab-e Yazd, 1995.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso, 2006.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith, Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? London: Verso Books, 2016.Google Scholar
Cole, Sarah, “Enchantment, Disenchantment, War, Literature.” Journal of Modern Language Association 124, no. 5 (2009): 1632–1647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emerson, R. Guy, Necropolitics: Living Death in Mexico. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francisco, Ferrándiz, and Robben, Antonius C.G.M, eds. Necropolitics: Mass Graves and Exhumations in the Age of Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Flaskerud, Ingvild, “Redemptive Memories: Portraiture in the Cult of Commemoration.” In Unburied Memories: The Politics of Bodies of Sacred Defense Martyrs in Iran, ed. Khosronejad, Pedram, 1–22. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar
Fromanger, Marine, “Variations in the Martyrs’ Representations in South Tehran’s Private and Public Spaces.” Visual Anthropology 25, no. 1 (2012): 47–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilory, Paul, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double-Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Gražinć, Marina, and Tatlić, Śefik. Necropolitics, Racialization and Global Capitalism: Historicization of Biopolitics and Forensics of Politics, Art and Life. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014.Google Scholar
Gruber, Christine, “The Martyrs’ Museum in Tehran: Visualizing Memory in Post-Revolutionary Iran.” Visual Anthropology 25, no. 1–2 (2012): 68–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalkhoran, Sedaqat Jabbari, and Khabiri, Mohammadreza. “Barrasi-ye sang-nebeshtehha-ye tarikhi-ye shahrestan-e yazd.” Ketab-e Mah-e Honar, no. 145 (2010): 60–73.Google Scholar
Khomeini, Ruhollah, Chera Jang? Tehran: Chapkhaneh-ye ershad-e eslami, 1981.Google Scholar
Khosronejad, Pedram, ed. Unburied Memories: The Politics of Bodies of Sacred Defense Martyrs in Iran. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayo, James, War Memorials as Political Landscape: The American Experience and Beyond. New York: Praeger, 1988.Google Scholar
Mbembé, J.A., “Necropolitics” (trans. Meintjes, Libby). Public Culture 15, no. 1 (2003): 11–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purnaserani, Reza, and Soleimani, Neda. “Tahlil va moqayeseh-ye sangneveshteha-ye qobur-e Behesht-e zahra-ye Tehran dar do daheh-ye 1374-84 va 1384-94 ba tʾakid bar arzeshha-ye barjasteh.” Motaleʿat-e Jameʿehshenasi, no. 35 (2010): 101–123.Google Scholar
Rizvi, Kishwar, “Religious Icon and National Symbol: The Tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.” Muqarnas 20 (2003): 209–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robin, Ron, “A Foothold in Europe: The Aesthetics and Politics of American War Cemeteries in Western Europe.” Journal of American Studies 29, no. 1 (1995): 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Safikhani, Nina Seyyed, Ahmadpanah, Abutorab, and Khodadadi, Ali. “Neshaneh-shenasi-ye noghush-e qabrestan-e Takht-e Fulad-e Isfahan.” Majalleh-ye Honarha-ye Tajassomi, no. 60 (2014): 67–80.Google Scholar
Savage, Kirk, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War and Monument in Nineteenth Century America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shams, Fatemeh, A Revolution in Rhyme: Official Poets of the Islamic Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming2020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shirazi, Faegheh, “Death, the Great Equalizer: Memorializing Martyred (Shahid) Women in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Visual Anthropology 25, no. 1 (2012): 98–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sodaro, Amy, Exhibiting Atrocity: Memorial Museums and the Politics of Past Violence. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taaffe, Seamus, “Commemorating the Fallen: Public Memorials to the Irish Dead of the Great War.” Archaeology Ireland 13, no. 3 (1999): 18–22.Google Scholar
Taheri Bethel, Fereshteh, A Psychological Theory of Martyrdom: A Content Analysis of Personal Documents of Baha'i Martyrs of Iran Written Between 1979 and 1982. San Diego, CA: United States International University, 1984.Google Scholar
Talebi, Shahla, “From the Light of the Eyes to the Eyes of the Power: State and Dissent Martyrs in Post-revolutionary Iran.” Visual Anthropology 25 (2012): 120–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varzi, Roxanne, Warring Souls: Youth, Media and Martyrdom in Post-revolutionary Iran. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Volk, Lucia, “Re-Remembering the Dead: A Genealogy of a Martyrs Memorial in South Lebanon.” Arab Studies Journal 15, no. 1 (2007): 44–69.Google Scholar
Volk, Lucia, Memorials Martyrs in Modern Lebanon. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Ware, Fabian, “Building and Decoration of the War Cemeterijes.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 72, no. 3725 (1924): 344–355.Google Scholar
Weber, Max, Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, trans. Gerth, H.H., and Wright Mills, C.. New York: Oxford University Press, 1958.Google Scholar