Zinat Motahari; Hossein Harsij; Ali AliHosseini
Abstract
This study uses Lacanian metaphor and decolonial rhetoric as the theoretical framework in its analysis of the Iranian principalist intellectual Hassan Azghadi. It proposes that Iran’s modern polity is defined by its dual stance towards modernity at one level and modernization at another. The analysis ...
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This study uses Lacanian metaphor and decolonial rhetoric as the theoretical framework in its analysis of the Iranian principalist intellectual Hassan Azghadi. It proposes that Iran’s modern polity is defined by its dual stance towards modernity at one level and modernization at another. The analysis seeks to answer the question “How does Azghadi’s Rhetoric reproduce the nodal points of the IR’s decoloniality?”. To answer this question, we analyze the decoloniality in Azghadi’s rhetoric by highlighting the use of metaphor in it. According to the decoloniality theory, delinking from the heritage of colonialism necessitates discourse-building. To understand the metaphoricity of Azghadi both as a discourse and as a rhetorical trope at the semantic level, we rely on “conceptual metaphor”, a five-step method developed by Steen (1998). Azghadi’s speech on Islamic Civilization-making is purposively selected for its resonating decolonial content. We contend that “Islamic awakening” is a very broad metaphor that gives coherence to the idea of Islamic civilization-making. Under it, we come to four nodal points: VOCATION, TRANSCENDENCE, ORGANISM, and OTHERIZATION. While the first three construct the nodes of the IR’s decolonial discourse, the last dislocates the rivaling capitalist and fundamentalist discourses. Finally, the minor metaphors under each node are studied based on Steen’s model. In conclusion, we review how these metaphors inspire Azghadi’s audiences for delinking from the liberal epistemology and re-appropriating the Islamic thought system as the cornerstone of their civilization.
