In the period following the consolidation of the Sacred Defense discourse in Iranian literature and cinema, a diverse body of works emerged that does not necessarily conform to the official ideological framework of this discourse. These works are frequently situated in non-combat or marginal spaces, employ a limited number of characters, and unfold within enclosed, elevated, or isolated settings. The narrative perspective is often entrusted to a solitary observer or soldier whose stance toward the war is ambivalent, contradictory, or at least unpredictable. Such formal and thematic features signal both distance from and plurality within the Sacred Defense discourse, foregrounding the need to examine the artist’s positionality and creative strategies. Drawing on Dominique Maingueneau’s theory of literary discourse, this article contends that while literary discourse grants the writer a privileged enunciative position, this position can only be occupied through the construction of a singular narrative space, or paratopia. The realization of such a space requires the mobilization of the author’s personal paratopic resources in conjunction with a negotiation of the constraints imposed by contemporary literary and cultural institutions. An artist who positions themselves beyond ideological discourse cannot entirely detach from social norms and collective expectations, but must instead navigate a precarious balance between creative autonomy and institutional limitation. Within this framework, the recurrent depiction of secluded spaces at the margins of war, as well as the portrayal of poetic, unconventional observer figures, may be read as textual manifestations of the artist’s paratopic condition. These narrative strategies reflect a dual authorial position that simultaneously affirms participation in the Sacred Defense discourse and articulates a critical distance from it. This analysis demonstrates that Sacred Defense art cannot be reduced to a direct or homogeneous representation of war; rather, it constitutes a contested site in which official ideology, individual experience, and literary creativity intersect and negotiate meaning. Keywords: Sacred Defense genre, paratopia, Dominique Maingueneau, authorial autonomy, subversive narrative strategies, ideology and literature, discourse analysis
 
Extended Abstract
This study investigates the transformation of Iranian Sacred Defense literature and cinema over the past two decades through the theoretical lens of Dominique Maingueneau’s concept of “paratopia”, which describes the creator’s simultaneous belonging to and estrangement from dominant social discourses. Traditionally, Sacred Defense narratives—produced in the sociopolitical context of post-revolutionary Iran—functioned as ideological instruments reinforcing religious devotion, martyrdom, and national solidarity. They centered on battlefield heroism, collective sacrifice, and a divine worldview that aligned consistently with the state’s nationalist-religious discourse. However, more recent works in both literature and cinema have increasingly departed from these epic and propagandistic frameworks. Rather than depicting large-scale battlefronts, contemporary narratives relocate their protagonists to marginal, remote, or introspective spaces such as watchtowers, deserted trenches, mountain outposts, isolated villages, or enclosed civilian structures. This spatial contraction is accompanied by thematic introspection, humanistic questioning, and the emergence of fractured or ambiguous narrative voices. The present study argues that these transformations reflect not mere aesthetic experimentation but deeper discursive negotiations in which authors and filmmakers carve out zones of autonomy within and against dominant ideological structures.
Maingueneau’s theory provides a productive conceptual framework for interpreting these shifts. According to him, the artist’s position is fundamentally paratopic: the creator must simultaneously operate within the social and institutional world that legitimizes their work and maintain a margin of separation necessary for artistic identity. This duality manifests in narrative structures, characters, and especially spatial formations that symbolize the creator’s tension between belonging and non-belonging. The study demonstrates that contemporary Sacred Defense works employ paratopic strategies—both spatial and narrative—to assert independence from ideological expectations while remaining intelligible to the cultural field from which they emerge.
The careers of prominent filmmakers such as Ebrahim Hatamikia and writers like Habib Ahmedzädeh exemplify this dynamic. Hatamikia, the most significant director of the Sacred Defense genre, oscillates publicly between asserting institutional independence and affirming dependency on state organizations such as the IRGC. These contradictions, often interpreted journalistically as political opportunism, are reinterpreted by this study as manifestations of authorial paratopia: the filmmaker’s creative position emerges precisely from the tensions between autonomy and institutional support. Similarly, Ahmedzädeh embodies a liminal identity—socially, ideologically, and geographically—which informs both his aesthetic commitments and his critical distance from propagandistic war narratives. Though recognized as a prominent Sacred Defense figure, he engages deeply with literary modernism and absurdism and occasionally expresses an explicit desire to transcend national boundaries in his storytelling.
The study further analyzes the role of the wandering narrator, a recurring figure in new wave war narratives whose unstable belonging mirrors the author’s paratopic position. In works such as “Chess with the Doomsday Machine”, narrators adopt first-person perspectives that blur the boundaries between fiction and memoir, allowing state publishers to assimilate them into the ideology of martyrdom. Yet their inner conflicts, doubts, and encounters with marginal characters reveal a deeper estrangement from wartime orthodoxy. The narrator’s forced separation from comrades, his interactions with a prostitute and an atheist engineer, and his reflections on deterministic creation challenge the metaphysical and heroic certainties central to older Sacred Defense discourse. Such characters—confessional, fractured, and self-critical—embody the author’s ambivalence toward the ideological foundations of the war narrative.
Spatial analysis constitutes another major component of this study. Remote, elevated, or enclosed settings—watchtowers, mountain bases, deserted houses, and isolated villages—are interpreted as paratopic spaces where authors construct a symbolic vantage point apart from mainstream discourse. These spaces enable introspection, skepticism, and aesthetic experimentation. Cinematic examples such as “The Red Ribbon”, “The Queen”, and “Minoo Watch Tower” illustrate how elevated watch points become metaphors for authorial transcendence. In “The Queen”, the observer’s tower acts as a quasi-divine platform from which human lives are judged, spared, or condemned—a symbolic representation of the artist’s imagined godlike autonomy. Such imagery foregrounds the creator’s desire to rise above both the chaos of war and the ideological pressures shaping its representation.
The study also examines subversive scenes in contemporary works, where moments of emotional collapse, humor, or humanistic recognition destabilize the ideological coherence of the Sacred Defense narrative. Films like “The Night Bus” portray Iranian and Iraqi soldiers as mirror images of one another, employing visual motifs such as contrasting blindfolds to emphasize shared vulnerability. Humorous disruptions—such as a buzzing fly undermining a violent command—function as paratopic ruptures that mock or dilute the authority of wartime discourse. Similarly, absurd or comic descriptions of martyrdom in literature desacralize death, challenging the heroic and spiritualized framing traditionally imposed on it.
Marginal figures—villagers, nomads, gypsies, and transnational characters—also play a crucial symbolic role. Their presence evokes the writer’s longing for forms of life unbound by modern ideological systems, reflecting the artistic aspiration for independence. These characters often inhabit the literal margins of society and narrative, but they anchor the paratopic realm where authors negotiate their estranged position. Examples from “Suran-e Sard”, “The Last Seven Days”, and “Red Ribbon” illustrate how encounters with rural or nomadic communities create pockets of humanity and authenticity that stand apart from the polarized moral universe of war propaganda.
Finally, the study analyzes literary allusions as a strategy through which authors align themselves with global artistic traditions rather than state-sponsored narratives. References to Beckett, the presence of books and poetry within war stories, and the depiction of writers or musicians as protagonists signal the creator’s affiliation with “pure art.” Scenes in “The Suspension Bridge”, “Red Ribbon”, and “The Queen” underscore the confrontation between artistic sensibility and ideological rigidity, often portraying literature and music as forces capable of disarming violence.
In conclusion, the shift toward marginal spaces, fractured narrators, aesthetic self-reflexivity, and humanistic questioning in contemporary Sacred Defense literature and cinema reveals a broad paratopic movement in which creators negotiate ideological pressures while asserting artistic autonomy. These works represent neither outright opposition nor uncritical affirmation but a complex, liminal engagement that redefines the spatial, narrative, and ethical contours of Iranian war storytelling. Future research should examine how global cinematic techniques and post-classical war genres influence these transformations, and how Iranian artists continue to navigate the interplay between national discourse and international aesthetic trends.