Introduction: propagandas, cultural production, and negotiating ideology in Iran

Abstract

ABSTRACT This special issue focuses on the vast field of propagandas in Iran resulting from the dynamic between state-sponsored cultural production and its audiences. Propagandas emerge when motifs of classical regime propaganda diffuse into the arts, film, and literature to develop an independent existence detached from the strategies of regime messaging, thereby shaping ideological negotiations and contestations across society. Since its founding in 1979, the Islamic Republic has relied on propaganda to (semi-) systematically advance and establish a political and ideological agenda in order to build a coherent grand narrative of what the ‘essence’ of life in Iran should be. However, the constant urge to maintain ideological uniformity in the face of domestic and international crises, as well as evolving technology, such as smartphones and social media, has required regime actors to rethink, redeploy, and rearrange the content and methods of their propaganda. This rebirthing and upgrading of state propaganda into new forms and meanings has been met with resistance, subversion, and assimilation. The articles in this special issue highlight how state propaganda–and its afterlives–is a key venue for the struggle over identity and ideology between state and society in Iran.