Underground Labyrinths: Woman and Expanded Cinema in Contemporary Iran
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Kazemimanesh, Sara
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Schlumpf, Erin
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Ohio University
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
336 p.
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Body granting the degree
Ohio University
Text preceding or following the note
2019
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This dissertation is a historiographic intervention in the prevailing canon of experimental cinema, and more specifically the history of Iranian cinema. I utilize expanded cinema as an inclusive term that reconciles critical discourses about avant-garde and expanded art practice with experimental and underground film. By investigating the emergence and evolution of expanded cinema in Iran, I posit it as a counter-force to the patriarchal traditions of hierarchy and exclusion that dominate cinema and other cultural spheres in the Islamic Republic. Additionally, I argue that the subjective agency of contemporary Iranian artists, particularly women like Newsha Tavakolian (b. 1981) and Nastaran Safaei (b. 1984), has initiated a new feminist discourse that boldly tackles issues related to gender, identity, and body politics.