An Analysis of Hamid Dabashi's Iran: A People Interrupted [Paperback]

Hamid Dabashis 2007 Iran: A People Interrupted is simultaneously subtle, passionate, polarizing and polemical. A concise account of Iranian history from the early 19th-century onward, Dabashis book uses his incisive analytical skills as a basis for creating a persuasive argument against the views of Iran that predominate in the West.

In Dabashis view, Western approaches to Iran have been colored time and time again by the assumption that it is somehow trapped between regressive tradition, and progressive modernity. The reality, he argues, is quite the opposite: Iran has its own distinctive ideology of modernity, which is nevertheless opposed to many Western ideals. In order to prove his point, Dabashi draws on a lifetimes experience of literary criticism to analyse the relationship between Irans intellectual and political elites over two centuries.

His analysis provides the key evidence for his reasoning by teasing out the implicit assumptions that underly the texts and people he examines. Looking beneath the surface of the evidence, Dabashi finds  time and time again  the traces of a uniquely Iranian notion of modernity that is quite at odds with its Western counterpart.

Ways in to the text  Who is Dabashi? What does Iran: A People Interrupted say? Why does Iran: A People Interrupted  matter?  Section 1: Influences  Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context  Module 2: Academic Context  Module 3: The Problem  Module 4: The Author's Contribution  Section 2: Ideas  Module 5: Main Ideas  Module 6: Secondary Ideas  Module 7: Achievement  Module 8: Place in the Author's Work  Section 3: Impact&nbsplc'