An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Mira Xenia Schwerda (Postdoctoral Fellow; University of Edinburgh).
Mirror of the Unseen: Constitutionalist Image Making and the Beginnings of Politicized Celebrity Culture in Modern Iran
Whereas formerly mirrors for princes had been produced at great expense to educate only the ruler in Iran, at the beginning of the twentieth century newspapers had become the mirror of the nation and took on its education. This process involved introducing the public to actors and goals of the new Constitutionalist movement. A plethora of photographic and lithographed images portraying revolutionary politicians and other figures important to the movement were soon introduced and collected. This intertwined history of political revolution and celebrity culture becomes especially apparent in the lithographed portraits and satirical cartoons featured in journals such as 'Abd al-Rahim Kashani’s aptly named satirical weekly A’īna-yi Ghaybnumā’ (Mirror of the Unseen). The Constitutionalist portraiture presented in the journal was further complemented by a number of photographic picture postcards circulated by the same publisher. While Constitutionalist journals have so far been mainly discussed as vehicles of political criticism through verbal and visual satire, I will demonstrate how the journals also worked as a catalyst for what can be called the beginnings of celebrity culture in modern Iran.
Click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/86535202023
Passcode: Vr8f3ew2