Abstract
The osmosis between Iranian exile, Oriental repertoires, and the commodification of nostalgia in film and contemporary1 culture alludes to the Disney reproduction of the East that is capitalized by Hollywood’s invisible hand. The commodification of Orientalist logic via nostalgia of old civilization and Achaemenid grandeur is conveyed by Hamid Naficy’s (1991) reference to Edward Said’s (1978) ‘imaginary2 geography’—the inventive tool of narration that augments tales and anecdotes of exilic narratives, while heightening essentialism of the East. The European modeling of coronation, bejeweled scepters of royalty under the Pahlavi period (1941-1979), and cinematic repertoires of Iranians in film are perpetuated for viewers via fetishization, lust, and enchantment. The televised 1967 coronation of Queen Farah (b. 1938) solidified the trope of the Persian ‘Empress’ through picturesque markers of Achaemenid rulership (550-330 BCE). Media3 propagations of nostalgia in the paradisiacal Pahlavi coronation can be paralleled to current illusions of the Orient presented in the film Paterson (Jarmusch, 2016), starring exiled Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani. I refer to the Pahlavi coronation to expand on the spectacle of ‘nostalgia’, and the desire for a distant homeland. Naficy’s (1991) interpretation of ‘nostalgia’—a factor of exile, expounds how relics and objects induce a longing for the distant and ahistorical. Objects of nostalgia are inexplicably weaponized in Hollywood inventions of Near Eastern characters and serve as palpable symbols of the East via skewed representations of women, sexuality, and the exotic4 (Ahmed, 2006). Poetry, nostalgia, and fictional tales of the Orient in Paterson (Jarmusch, 2016) allude to Said’s (1978) vision of the imperialist project in Orientalism. The inventive and imaginary power of color media in the televised Pahlavi coronation and the fashioning of a politically permanent subject of interest—Iranians and the East, augured a pertinent era of media post-coloniality5 via the preservation of orientalism, rather than the Orient.
Highlights
The nostalgia of regal history dating back to Cyrus the Great‟s founding of the Persian Empire (559 B.C.), fastforwarding to the pseudo-modernism of the 1967 Pahlavi coronation presented European emulations of imperial majestry and Orientalist logic
The commodification of Orientalist logic via nostalgia of old civilization and Achaemenid grandeur is conveyed by Hamid Naficy‟s (1991) reference to Edward Said‟s (1978) „imaginary2 geography‟—the inventive tool of narration that augments tales and anecdotes of exilic narratives, while heightening essentialism of the East
Hamid Naficy‟s “The Poetics and Practice of Iranian Nostalgia in Exile” will elaborate on nostalgia as a pre-existing factor resonating within the Iranian psyche—one fueled by lamentation, poetry, and desire for the distant homeland (Naficy, 1991)
Summary
The nostalgia of regal history dating back to Cyrus the Great‟s founding of the Persian Empire (559 B.C.), fastforwarding to the pseudo-modernism of the 1967 Pahlavi coronation presented European emulations of imperial majestry and Orientalist logic. The color film of European coronation utilized by Iranian ambassadors in 1966 set the precedent of what the Pahlavi coronation unwittingly reflected—quintessential and pseudo-modern imperialism The regality of the coronation spectacle heightened the essentialism of Central Asia and overarching Orientalist logic through the imperial couple‟s taste for all things grand and modern, yet ancient and regal The reliance on archival rulership of the Achaemenids set the tone of regality through diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires—all adding tangible and visual momentum to the Oriental idioms entering the Western press in the 1970s (Steele, 2021, p. 179, 191)
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