Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Reading Alatas in Iran and the Myth of Exceptionalism

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Shima Vezvaei

MA in Global Communication and International Journalism, Freie University Berlin, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia

https://doi.org/10.22034/jss.2023.1988285.1758
Abstract
How should one read Syed Hussein Alata's’ The Myth of the Lazy Native in Iran? What are its possible contributions towards theorizing an ideological concept that has kept Iranian dynamics of progress in suspense for a long time? This article attempts to expand on the idea of Iranian exceptionalism, observe and explain the discourse around it. The author employs Alatas’s writings, particularly those from his book The Myth of the Lazy Native, in order to argue that Iranian exceptionalism is a mentality created and empowered by internal despotism as well as external semi-colonialism in modern Iran.

Borrowing ideas from Alates's analysis of postcolonial Malaysia, the author suggests that Iranian exceptionalism locates at the intersection of gender, religious, and national ideologies - it refers to a being and condition of contradiction. It is what makes the nation’s image of itself both inferior and superior towards the other at the same time. It is indeed what makes imagining future change impossible – and therefore ideological.

Keywords

Hussein Alatas
cultural studies
exceptionalism
Iran
ideology
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Journal of Iranian Social Studies
Volume 16, Issue 3
Autumn 2022
Pages 102-118

  • Receive Date 25 January 2023
  • Accept Date 15 March 2023
  • First Publish Date 15 March 2023
  • Publish Date 23 October 2022

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