Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature, Arts and Humanities

“An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Social-Critical Discourse in Gholam-Hossein Saedi’s Drama: Parvarbandān and Vāy bar Maghlub in Light of Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Theory"

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Seyed Mohammad Maddah Hosseini 1
Kazem Chalipa 2
Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari 3

1 PhD Student in Art Research ,Shahed University, Tehran,

2 Associate Professor of Painting, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran(Corresponding Author)

3 Associate Professor of Performing Arts, Department of Performing Arts, University of Tehran

10.22077/islah.2026.10150.1753
Abstract
The introduction of theatre to Iran during the Qajar period was the result of cultural transformations and the encounter of intellectual elites with Western civilization. The pioneers of Iranian theatre regarded playwriting as a tool for social critique, political agency, and the denunciation of governmental corruption, particularly in the absence of a democratic system. During the second Pahlavi era, especially following the the coup d’état of 19 August 1953, theatre increasingly became a site for the representation of power relations and the articulation of social critique. From an interdisciplinary perspective, theatre functioned as an intervention in the public sphere, the political field, and the production of the social. Employing a qualitative discourse analysis methodology and drawing on the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, this study examines the nature and mechanisms of discursive meaning-making in the works of Gholamhossein Sa‘edi. The central objective of this research is to explore how social critique is discursively constructed in Sa‘edi’s plays. The findings indicate that Sa‘edi portrays people as ignorant masses and the state as a dominating and hegemonic force. His discourse extends social critique beyond the Pahlavi regime and challenges any political order grounded in a centralized state, considering the realization of a socialist utopia to be contingent upon a process of desirable structural reconfiguration. In plays such as Vāy bar Maghlub and Parvarbandān, intellectuals are depicted as being entrapped within capitalist mechanisms and liberal hegemony; they either submit to the dominant order or resort to ineffective forms of individual action that ultimately contribute to the reproduction and stabilization of hegemony. Sa‘edi’s critique focuses on the obstruction of collective consciousness and the limitations of emancipatory action, while the critical discourse.

Keywords

Discourse Analysis
Gholamhossein Saedi
Social Critique
the Second Pahlavi Era
Critical Drama
Subjects
Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature, Arts and Humanities

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 10 September 2026

  • Receive Date 26 September 2025
  • Revise Date 07 January 2026
  • Accept Date 08 January 2026

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