Abstract
Although Iranian society has not been directly colonized by Western countries over the past centuries, the colonizing strategies of some of these countries have been successful during various historical periods. Furthermore, Iranian intellectuals have taken diverse orientations towards the Western ideology. Nonetheless, debates on Western influences on Iranian culture and the orientations that could be taken towards them reached their climax during the Constitutional Revolution of Iran in the 19<sup>th</sup> century and continued to the Pahlavi Dynasty. It is said that Jalal Ale-Ahmad was among those intellectuals who were deeply influenced by the issue of Western influence on Iranian society. As a translator of some Western literary works, Ale- Ahmad could not have a nativist orientation towards Western influences. Nonetheless, he did not accept that Iranian culture could be influenced entirely by the Western culture. In his <i>Occidentosis</i>, Ale-Ahmad, besides explaining the term Westoxication attempts to introduce the problem of Orientalism in Iran. The current study aims to shed light on Ale-Ahmad’s personal views and orientation towards Westoxification. This paper will cover the problems of being oriented, in Ale-Ahmad’s view and also address his proposed solutions for Westoxification. Likewise, the issue of the Orientaized Orientals, as understood, by Ale-Ahmad will be put under consideration.
Highlights
According to one of Edward Said’s general definitions about Orientalism, this term can refer to “every or any occasion when a Westerner has either imagined or written about the East”
He believes that those intellectuals who are not committed to Westoxification can change the Iranian Westoxified society
Some of them have believed in complete acceptance of Western culture, some of them have negated it completely and the others have tried to adapt those necessary parts which are not against Islamic Shari’a and Iranian culture
Summary
According to one of Edward Said’s general definitions about Orientalism, this term can refer to “every or any occasion when a Westerner has either imagined or written about the East” Based on this presumption “Orientalism becomes an imaginative ... The major encounters of European countries with Iranians took place during the Qajar dynasty which rose to power at the end of the 18th century. It was “during the 125 years of Qajar rule that the Iranian empire transformed into a nation-estate” [4]. “Occidentosis” (Gharbzadeghi in Persian) was a political polemic written in the Pahlavi government It was one of the first books that criticized the Iranians’ deep and opaque affection for the technological and imperialistic Western culture. It will be mentioned that Ale-Ahmad is introducing new strategies to the religious scholars (Ulama) of his day to deal with the Western technological and cultural productions in a way that they can use these technologies for confronting the West-stickiness asserted from the West
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