گفتمان پست مدرن در سينماي ايران (مورد مطالعه فيلم «صندلي خالي»)

Postmodern Discourse and Iranian Cinema (Case Study: the Movie ‘The Empty Chair’)

پست مدرنيسم به مثابه‏ يك گفتمان، در  جهان فيلم نفوذ كرده است و «سينماي پست مدرن» را خلق نموده است. گفتمان سينماي پست مدرن شامل ابعادي چون وانموده و تزلزل واقعيت، مركززدايي از سوژه، مرگ مؤلف، پاك‏شدگي مرزهاي زماني، تركيب تكنيك‏ها و ژانرها و كثرت‏گرايي است كه در  تقابل با ساير گفتمان‏ها قرار مي‏گيرد. هدف مقاله‏ حاضر معرفي اين گفتمانِ سينمايي، تفسير و نشان دادن عناصر آن در يكي از فيلم‏هاي سينماي ايران است. براي نيل به اين هدف، گفتمان سينماي پست مدرن بر اساس نظريه‏ گفتمان لاكلا و موف تعريف مي‏شود و سه بعد وانموده، مركززدايي از سوژه و مرگ مؤلف به عنوان چارچوب مفهومي انتخاب مي‏شوند. چارچوب روشي نيز ملهم از نظريه‏ روايت پست مدرن متشكل از فابيولا، سيوژت، شخصيت و راوي است كه در پيوند با چارچوب مفهومي به تحليل فيلم «صندلي خالي» ساخته‏ سامان استركي مي‏پردازد. نتايج نشان مي‏دهد كه «صندلي خالي» با روايت اپيزوديك، تو در تو و مارپيچ خود جهان وانموده‏اي را خلق مي‏كند كه در آن مرز واقعيت و توهم فرو مي‏ريزد و سوژه‏هايِ سرگرداني خلق مي‏كند كه ناتوان از تغيير اين جهان‏اند و در نهايت در يك بن‏بست هستي شناختي از جهان وانموده كنار مي‏روند. راوي‏هاي چندگانه و خصلت خود ارجاعي فيلم در نهايت پاسخي به پرسش‏هايي كه مطرح مي‏كند ندارد چرا كه مرگ مؤلف خصلت اين فيلم است. علاوه بر اين، گفتمان سينماي پست مدرن در مقابل گفتمان‏هاي سياسي و فرهنگيِ هژمونيك ايران، پس رانده شده و در حاشيه قرار دارد.

IntroductionPostmodernism literally means an era beyond modernism in the West associated with the late capitalist economy, consumer society and postindustrial society. Postmodernism emerged in architecture and crystalized in philosophy, music, painting, theatre and cinema. In cinema discourse, there is no consensus on postmodernism, however. While some critics believe that the term ‘postmodern cinema’ was introduced by Peter Wollen in 1992 for the movie Batman Returns, some have spotted its traces in cinema journals of the 1980s. Although Iranian society is not a postmodern one, postmodernism has permeated into Iranian cinema as an aesthetic style. The present study aims to characterize postmodern cinema in the first place and interpret its elements in the Iranian movie The Empty Chair. Accordingly, the study addresses the question ‘what characteristics in The Empty Chair accounts for its being considered as a postmodern movie? Materials and MethodsTo this end, the characteristics of postmodern cinema are introduced. Simulation and the fragility of reality, subject decentralization, death of the author, elimination of time limits, synthesis of techniques and genres, and pluralism are some of these properties. From among these characteristics, simulation and the fragility of reality, subject decentralization and death of the author were considered as the conceptual framework of the study and postmodern discourse were defined according to Laclau and Mouffes theory. The methodological framework of the study was inspired by postmodern narrative theory involving Fabula, Soujet, personae and narrator that are used in connection with the conceptual framework to analyze the movie ‘The Empty Chair’ directed by Saman Esterki. Discussion of Results and ConclusionThe results show that although it is inscribed in the final episode of the movie that ‘the events in this movie are merely a view of determinism and free will but not necessarily a true one’, the movie reaches far beyond a classic philosophicaltheological debate. With its episodic and labyrinthine narration, the movie turns out to be a selfreferencing entity that problematizes universal claims of reality. The selfreference approach is at the heart of a simulated world where the boundary between reality and illusion shatters so that the movie creates vagrant subjects in an illusory world. The subjects have to engage with the problems in the creation of which they had no role. Besides, they fail to change the status quo. Only does the beginning of the next episode duck the responsibility of being a subject from characters and relay it to the next characters. It appears as though the rationale of responsibility in the world is one of the flow of signifiers that drift from one episode to the next. Such turmoil also appears in the confusion of the narrative elements performance of Fabula and Soujet. That is, the movie fails in the intentional arrangement of narrativity. Thus, the vertical link between Fabula and Soujet is broken such that the elements of narration are conjoined horizontally and randomly. Therefore, multiple narrators, music, variable voices and rotation of time both create a simulation and inform of the death of the omniscient and author.The above features help define the Empty chair as part of the postmodern cinema discourse that opposes the dominant political and cultural discourses in the Iranian discursive arena due to the discursive dimensions of precarious reality, decentralization of subject, death of the author, etc. Dominant Iranian discourses such as religious, nationalistic and ethnic discourses, some of which are utterly hegemonic, have adopted elements of postmodern discourse though they antagonize it in its totality. That is, although cultural relativism or the past grandeur is an important component of some of these discourses, the simulated world as well as absolute determinism dominating the subject and death of the omniscient stand opposed to the very foundations of these discourses. Thus, many of the aspects of postmodern discourse are rejected or marginalized. That is why postmodern cinema discourse fails to corner the opponents; rather it retreats itself and tends to survive in the margins of the discursive field. It is no surprise that movies like the Empty Chair find even no chance of public screening. Besides, no institutional changes in filmmaking have occurred in the Cinema of Iran as of yet such as the development of technological tools in order for the postmodern cinema to shape its mold. Accordingly, postmodern cinema discourse in Iran is marginal and has little audience though it manages to survive