Religion as Politics, Religion as Culture: Ideologization and De-Ideologization of the Literature Field after the 1979 Revolution in Iran

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 1979 revolution in Iran led to the establishment of a political system based on Shi’a Islam ideology which imposed on the cultural field various dichotomies, such as religious/infidel. Under such influences, the particularities of the category of the ‘secular’ writer in Iran have been undermined in the literature. In an attempt to fill such a gap, this article assumes an analytic distinction between religion as ideology, and religion as a complex heritage, inspired by the notion of post-Islamist liberation theology proposed by Hamid Dabashi. This notion suggests that internalized dichotomies such as Islam and the West should be overcome, and religious tradition should surpass its role as a de-historicized anti-western ideology. In doing so, I have discussed how the ideologization of the literature field during the 1980s led to the gradual reconstruction of religion as culture within the independent pole of writers. While religion as ideology maintained its rigid principles, by the end of the 1990s, religion as culture has refashioned itself among the independent religious and secular writers. I have argued that the links between Iranian secular writers and the religious tradition are far beyond mere opposition and criticism, and concern political, aesthetical, and philosophical aspects.