Quarterly Scientific Journal of Audio-Visual Media

Quarterly Scientific Journal of Audio-Visual Media

Construction of Immigrant Iranian Identity in US Television; A case study of Homeland TV-series

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Mohammad Mahdizadeh 1
Mohammad Mahdi Vahidi 2
1 Associate Professor at Faculty of Communication.Allameh Tabataba’i University
2 Ph.D. Student of Communication, Allameh Tabataba’i University
10.22085/javm.2019.184289.1295
Abstract
In this article, with focus on a special character of Homeland TV-series, named Fara Sherazi, we are seeking to analyze the construction of immigrant Iranian identity in US Television. In doing so, we will use analytical approach of social semiotics introduced by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen. We will also reviewed opposed elements and identities that used to construct the preferred identity. In our opinion, these kind of Iranian characters deconstruct conflated Arab / Muslim / Iranian identities and play an important role in re-framing the US new Other which can be used in continuous Self / Other opposition in life-time “state of exception”. At the end of this article we will conclude that Fara, along with other characters, participates in a process of identifying a new enemy for US and she became a semiotic resource of “Iranian Immigrant” which can be used as a reference in other mediated texts.
Keywords
Identity
Representation
Television
Social Semiotics
Semiotic Source
United States
Iran
 
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