Analyzing the Depiction of Women in Iranian Post-Revolutionary Film Adaptations

This dissertation explores the cross-cultural intricacies of adapting non-Iranian literary texts in post-revolutionary Iranian cinema, focusing on the shifting representations of female characters. Drawing on a tripartite critical approach encompassing feminist theory (Beauvoir, Butler), cultural discourse (Hall, Foucault) and adaptation studies (Hutcheon, Sanders), I examine how Iranian directors indigenize non-Iranian female figures within cinematic narratives while navigating the censorial constraints of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MCIG). By analyzing four films spanning the 1990s to the 2020s, the dissertation argues that these adaptations function as dynamic sites of cultural and intermedial negotiation. The first analytical chapter of the dissertation focuses on Dariush Mehrjui’s Sara (1993), adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. It examines how Mehrjui’s indigenization techniques enable a parallel between women’s situations in 1870s Norway and 1990s Iran, resulting in a socially conscious, culturally grounded adaptation. Chapter two centers on Farzad Motamen’s White Nights (2003), adapted from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s White Nights. It analyzes how Motamen’s film reimagines Dostoevsky’s female characters while drawing on Persian literary heritage and cinematography to foster a localized dialogue with the novella. Chapter three investigates Bahram Tavakoli’s Here Without Me (2011), a reimagining of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie. It highlights how Tavakoli incorporates cultural and intermedial modifications to craft a dual dreamlike/realist denouement, adapting the source text’s portrayal of female isolation to resonate with the symbolic and interpretive horizons of 2010s Iranian audiences. Chapter four examines Mohsen Gharaie’s Majority (2021), adapted from Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit. This chapter analyzes how the film’s use of cinematic realism and cultural localization to critique contemporary Iranian society attenuates the grotesque humor and tragicomic tone of Dürrenmatt while reconfiguring the feminist themes central to his play. Ultimately, by tracing these adaptations across four decades, the dissertation shows how filmmakers use cinema to negotiate and critique dominant discourses of female representation in post-revolutionary Iran, exercising creative agency within restrictive frameworks to reimagine women’s lived experiences.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph D

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Comparative Literature

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Mansouri, Niloofar

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Blankenship, Janelle

• Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema
• Female Representation
• Cross-Cultural Adaptation
• Feminist Theory
• Intermediality
• Indigenization
• Discursive Formations
• Censorship (MCIG)
• Henrik Ibsen
• Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Tennessee Williams
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt
• Dariush Mehrjui
• Farzad Motamen
• Bahram Tavakoli
• Mohsen Gharaie.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/39972

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/39972