Journal of Fine Arts: Performing Arts and Music
Year:2009 | Volume:- | Issue:38|Papers Count:12

Through the different stages of the history of the cinema, the nationality attached to a film, whether with regards to the country where it was filmed or the country that produced it, neither had much significance.Melies, Gaumont and Pathe, for instance, had offices in the United States and American film companies had offices outside of the United States. Although' national cinema' as a term emerged in 1915 in the two countries that had industrial power, namely the German Reich and the United States, ever since the 80's we have seen a growing attention toward the concept of national cinema. In many countries like Iran, the concept has been treated indigenously.Over the years, national cinema has been considered to flourish as a result of the economic rivalries between the leading film producing countries. The need for rules and regulation goveming the exclusive rights to sell and distribute a film in a certain region (country) caused a relation between the cinema industry and national monopoly. In the past decades, due to the cultural differences and the increasing exchanges among nations, its importance has multi plied. Theories and criticisms in this filed have been formed typically in relation and mostly in opposition to the mainstream Hollywood cinema. Nevertheless, the recent theoreticians are Determined to avoid an oversimplification of the subject so that the whole cinema of a country/nation could be studied in depth. In this regards, the diverse aspects of the cultural representation of countries and nations in the films could be further studied. Multiple elements affect the particularity of a national cinema. They may include the geographical and political boundaries a film is made in, the nationality of the filmmakers, The language of the filmmakers or the film, the legal and commercial regulations, audiences' needs and gratifications, profits and losses, and so on. Problems arise when some western academic institutions study the cinematic culture of non-western countries based on pre-established European/American patterns and accepted paradigms. To also take for granted the existence of an international and universal aesthetic and grammar of film could prove problematic.Another obstacle mentioned by theoreticians is. related to the commercial nature of cinema which as an artistic as well an industrial endeavor, needs a strong and rich local market or an international market.This in effect could be the grounds for unison under a dominant discourse, like the cinema of India. We have tried in this paper to highlight and explain the theoretical aspects as well as to delineate the limits of this term. This research discusses the several methods for studying a national cinema.Additionally, we have realized that the particularity of one national cinema is rooted in the questions of identity and the cultural unity and diversity of any given country or nation. We are noticing that in spite of the fact that this subject is under a great deal of scrutiny and discussion, its importance is fading because the national and cultural boundaries are vanishing and thus we will be witnessing the strengthening of the transnational cinemas in the future.

This research aims to have an exploratory look at the challenges of globalization in the Iranian film Industry. Globalization is a result of the conflicting intellectual forces that have acted as the dominant discourse within modernity. In the age of cultural communications, globalization can be used as a final approach toward the various disciplines of the arts and humanities. Historical views concerning this social evolution usually indicate certain problematic trends within the process of transformation from the ' national' to the ' global' . Disregarding all conceptual associations such as nationalism, localism, integration, hybridation, and globalism, the attempt to find cultural doctrines toward the enhancement of Iranian national identity is of particular importance. In this. sense, globalization becomes a necessity in our attempt to fulfill a constructive interaction with paradigms. Except for some alternative experiences that affected "the West" in recent years, Iranian Cinema has still a distorted national image. Despite all potentials, the global image of Iranian cinema needs to be revised. This study attempts to compare the challenges of globalizing Iranian film products with those similar concerns in developing countries like India, Hong Kong and Latin Americans. The main challenges of globalizing Iranian movies could be summarized in some parameters including the mismanagement, the artistic attitudes, and the cultural infrastructures. Unstable pseudo-identities, Global marginalism, and .Cultural self-sufficiency are the consequences of the current challenges. Unstable pseudo-identities challenge of Iranian cinema focuses on emerging temporary or often extremist identities by distorting the function of mass media. Global marginalism points out the disenchantment of looking at the West as an absolute taboo. The challenge of cultural self-sufficiency is also another illusion in which the artists or cultural managers suffering to chauvinism could not tolerate an "Other" culture. All outgoing strategies suggested in this research, thus, have been presented because of their potentials for actuallizing an opportunity to work out the main problem.However, the most significant strategies could be also regarded as follows: Mass production (i.e. an exploration of quantitative factors for developing the range of products of The Third World Cinema like Bollywood' s); Accordance with Modernity (i.e. tolerating the Other voice as a different culture despite the on-going attempts to revitalizing the "Self values); and Intercultural relationships as a bilateral strategy for joining to western cultural markets and transferring ideas through a virtual media passage.Some aspects of Iran's historical and cultural backgrounds contain common elements that could be transmitted into neighbors' territories. Persian literature, as a pure source of cultural elements and identities, may revive dramatically the global self-image of its current hidden characteristics. In conclusion, the research brings together all challenges and suggestions in a diagram indicating the inter-relations of Iranian "national" identity and "global" ambition.Iranian cinema has no choice but accepting its current distorted global self-image as a real danger, and then looking forward to an adapted realm of Glocalization (global-localization) for its cultural values.

Eugene lonesco, a famous dramatist of the 20th century, was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement in drama. Although his style throughout the history of drama has been called the 'theatre of the absurd', lonesco himself, not only omitted this title from his works, but also registered his works under a new label known as 'ommitted theatre' also known as' the human theatre' or 'the fighter theatre' . lonesco is a committed writer and creates anti-absurd yet significant plays. His theatre is a reflection of his era, an approach which gives his plays a global image thus making them eternal and everlasting.lonesco's writings went on sage when the world was under the influence of Marx, Freud, Darwin, and Einstein and Europe had already experienced the two world wars. Hopelessness ruled over the people of the world and it was through these plays that lonesco and other avantgarde play writes tried to polish the caotic conditions of the human world and give an image of hope and optimism toward the continuation of life. With regard to the type of their thoughts and writings in the afore said condition, we can guess that not only their theater is not absurd, but it is anti-absurd. They wanted to make people think about their conditions. Eugene lonesco suffered many ups and downs in his life: emigration, the divorce of his father and mother, moving against the intellectual currents of his time, resisting against the followers of power and power fans. All these sufferings turned his thoughts to the effective ones in society. By creating a character named "Berenger", he created one of the most memorable characters of the word' s drama. Berenger is present in four of his plays: The Killer, Rhinoceros, Stroll in the Air and Exit the King, as the only non-hero of Eugene lonesco, whose resistance in reviving the humanity and morality, has changed his character to a pure human. Describing Berenger's speech and behavior in these four plays, takes him beyond a normal human and has made his thoughts. Global, the thoughts which can be seen in Eugene lonesco' s mind. Berenger, in The Killer, ascends from an ordinary -person to a positive rebellion, then h.e falls to a normal philanthropy and in Rhinoceros, he gets bored of philanthropy and falls to an ordinary life and after a while which is fluctuating between ordinary life and philanthropy, goes up to a positive rebellion in Stroll in the Air which has returned to a negative rebellion and also philanthropy, he flies to seek the highest desire in dream, and returns to the land; and in Exit the King, he fluctuates among the normal life, the negative and positive rebellions, and philanthropy so that finally he dies and this is his late flight into the sky. In this paper, we have studied the changing of Berenger's character in four mentioned plays and have found his relationship with Eugene lonesco' s personal life.

Union of the soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was born shortly after the victory of the Russian Revolution and the establishment of Bolshevik rule in Russia. The rulers of the USSR planned to establish a government which was based on socialist doctrines in order to lead the society toward communism. In this path, it was necessary to demolish all remaining structures from Tsarist Russia and replace them with new ideologically correct establishments. In this process, the first unavoidable step was changing the culture and mentality of the Russian people and the second step was eradication of poverty and removal of exploitation through which people would be convinced of the new ruling system. One of the main areas in the creation of the appropriate bases for the new ruling system was theatre. Infact, the new ruling system played more attention to playwrights than to other artists. The central committee of the Communist party believed that it was in the power of the playwrights to disseminate the new ideology along with the ideas of its new rulers among the public and persuade them of the socialist utopia.October Revolution in Russia and victory of Marxist-Leninist ideological Revolution and establishment of Soviet Union had a great influence on all aspects of individual and social lives of the people.One of these areas of influence was establishment of a powerful and strict governmental system in the field of theater and particularly in dramaturgy (dramatic literature and playwriting). The operation of such governmental system undermined play writing during that period, so that none of the plays written within that era, in contrast with previously written plays, did not find international importance, white playwriting in this period of time should be the inheritor of fruitful, distinguished works of playwrights such as Pushkin, Chekhov, Googol and others. In this era and under the influences of the established ruling system, dramaturgy was at service of describing, deepening and bestowing legit.imacy to the ruling ideology and its promotion and thus it began its degradation. In this paper, the author has tried to infer, extract and summarize the trends and objectives dominant in the theater of that era in the form of "orders". These orders were in fact ideological instruction of the new rulers for the dramaturgy of that period. Then the author has tried to recognize and introduce those indicators prescribed by the cultural-artistic policy makers of ex-soviet union; the instructions which led to degradation and annihilation of dramaturgy at that time. It should be mentioned that the playwrights of that Socialist Union were bound to follow such instructions in their works. "Class struggle", "particular approaches of Socialist Realism", "development of a new positive character" were some of the prescribed characteristics of that period's dramaturgy.

Within the domain of Iranian culture, various theatrical forms have been recognized, some of which belong to the past centuries. Iranian people have become acquainted with Western theatre, its forms and styles, since about 130 years ago. Such an approach developed from time to time and consequently resulted in new forms of theatre. There were numerous forms of theatrical presentations in Iran before the entry of Western theatre. The most important and famous wasthe Ta' zyieh, a religious tragic passion play and Takht-e-howzi, a comic play based on the subjects derived from the ordinary daily life of Iranians. These two forms were so poplar among people of almost all ranks. (the same as exists today) The other forms of shows were mostly presented as amusement rather than a theatre play with all its, specifications.Nevertheless, many theatre directors have so far coloured partially their stage presentations by the elements of such shows. The entry of Western theatre in Iran happened primarily by the translation and adaptation of the original plays. This caused a step by step familiarity' of many Iranian people in the capital city Tehran, and a few other large cities with Western culture. The playwrights and audiences of such plays were mostly educated high and middle class urban citizens as well as those artists who had already studies in U.S.A. and Europe. This group of people played a remarkable role in the growth and development of Western theatre in Iran. The intellectuals of modern Iran paid accurate attention to the content of art and literature. They considered the artistic and cultural products critically and mostly believed that arts and literature should serve directly morality and politics. Westernised Iranian theatre, which maybe called "Westernised Influenced transitional Iranian theatre, " impacted substantially on many Iranian playwrights and theatrical artists. Such a theatre, in regards of theory and dramaturgy, resembled so closely to Western theatre and was received broadly by the educated intellectuals while the majority of people still refrained themselves from changing their tastes to pay a slight attention to it. It is to be mentioned that Western theatre was considered by many spirituals somehow seriously against religious ideas and beliefs. Religious leaders believed that Western would spread a kind of culture which was not approved by- Iranian Islamic thoughts. The govern.- mental policies for spreading foreign culture in Iran.especially during the Pahlavi dynasty, could not help the growth of Western theatre throughout the country.Even holding the Shiraz Art Festival for about 11 years could not bring people to the festival forum, except few educated people, mostly university scholars.Despite the notice and acceptance of the educated Iranians and also the support of the government, Western theatre faced serious problems since its entry; the problems which still exists even after several decades. The main reasons behind the failure of the development of Western theatre in Iran should be found in three important factors: 1) the disinterestness of the majority of people, especially the illiterate ones 2) the substantial fanatic religious beliefs and 3) the shortage of adequate institutional centres.

Comedy and comic drama are as old as the history of drama itself. For a long time, high level comedies have been classified into "Verbal Comedies" and "Comedies of Situation". The history of drama reveals the names of many great figures who are famous for their very wise and sweet verbal comedies, such as William Shakespeare (1564-1616), William Wycherley (1640-1716), William Congreve (1670-1729), Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751- 1816), Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Noel Coward (1899-1973), Alan Ayckbourn (b.1939), and Tom Stoppard (b.1937). These authors and their linguistic approach towards humor have been studied to some extent so far, but, the contemporary American comedies have not received the proper linguistic attention they deserve. This made an incentive to choose an American playwright and study his linguistic tactics in creating humor. In the field of American contemporary drama, Neil Simon (b.1927) has an outstanding position, especially with respect to his comedies. Given the fact that he has received several important prizes, such as a Politzer prize for his Lost in Yunkers, puts him more in the center of attraction. What has made Simon such a famous status lies in his curious mind, and his sweet verbal comedy, which has made him a cared author, not only by the general audience, but also by the critics. Having written both for cinema and theatre, Simon is capable to be studied both with respect to his drama, and his screenplays. This article deals with the techniques he has used to create verbal comedy, within a linguistic framework. In order to do so, first the theories of humor have been introduced. Then the concept of verbal comedy has been analyzed with regard to semantics and pragmatics, as two major branches of linguistic analysis. Within semantics, issues such as "ambiguity", "paradox", "hyperbole" and "metaphor" have been studied; and within pragmatics, issues such as "allegory", "discourse structure", "violation of turn-taking positions", "violations pf Grice's cooperation principles" and "violation of presuppositions" have been analyzed, for each of them, proper examples have been provided.After postulating the theoretical preliminaries of this study, the abovementioned issues have been applied on two plays written by Niel Simon: Lost in Yunkers, and The Rumors. In both of these plays, the characters are trapped in a situation they have no ideas about, and try to do away with the unwanted problems they face. The results of the study over the 287 items of verbal comedy in these two plays reveal that the pragmatic tools are more in work than the semantic ones, as they directly deal with the context of the plays.According to the findings of this research, the following items are most widely-used ways of creating verbal comedy in Simon's plays: Violation of the cooperative principles by the speakers, dramatic irony, hyperbole, Violation of the cooperative principles by the hearers, wise uses of similies and metaphors, distorting the presuppositions of the audience, and making use of paradoxes. Other issues, of course, have been used, but not to the extent of the items noted above.

Efforts in the improvement of work conditions in factories focus mostly on issues related to health ' protection' . Health ' promotion' however, is one of the issues which has drawn little or no attention among factory managers and health authorities. It is now more than a hundred years that manifests are issued and pledged by employers addressing health promotion among workers.Although such statements have for long bounded employers by limitations and standards on hazardous risks. Researches on promoting the workers health are mainly very little and the real actions in this regard are even less than that. One of the early studies in this issue took place by Diana Chapman Walsh, Susan E. Jennings, Thomas Mangione, Daniel M. Merrigan which the result was published in Journal of Public Health Policy in 1991. The article entitled "Health Promotion versus Health Protection? Employees' Perceptions and Concerns." This is an interdisciplinary project to control and harmonize the machinery noises of textile factories. In this project Jamineh and Zantous textile factories in Tehran have been chosen as pilots in which the noises of the sewing machines have been studied and tried to be controlled and tuned in specific frequencies in order to reach an overall harmonized noise. To do this, in the first step the sources of the noises were distinguished. In the second step, the noise of every machine was individually calculated and the spectrums one by one were drown and fully studied (the software used in calculating and analysing the sound is 'Transcribed' produced by Seventh String company). As the final step, the frequency in which most machines were shared was set as the basis of the harmony and the noises of the rest of the machines were tuned in particular consonance intervals of such basis. For instance if in one section of the factory there were four sewing machines working next to each other and the overall noise of each of which were G, S, G, G quarter sharp, A, the basis note considered as G. In this example, the machine with G sharp noise changed to overall G and machine with overall A noise moved to another section of the factory to harmonise with some other machines. The overall frequency of machines influenced by various factors, some of which very difficult to find their sources. In this project in the first phase it was tried to detect the main generator of the noise and in the second phase various approaches used to control it by lowering or raising the frequency in order to reach a specific note which was in consonance with other machinery noises. Prior and after the project questioners were field by workers to study their satisfaction with tuned noise. The outcome showed that the satisfaction of the workers with the tune noise was significantly higher than the wild noises of machines before the project taking place.

In a world destabilized by the experience of modernity, its speed and its technology, fixed forms seem more uncertain than ever. Music and speech also, are not exceptions. This paper is dedicated to questioning the illusion of determinacy around notions like music and speech.The idea that music and speech are perfectly precise and clear-cut concepts will be challenged.In other words, it will be shown that there are many instances in which a sound cannot be easily classified as music or Speech. Similarities between Music and speech and the vagueness of the borders between them, make it difficult to separate the two with absolute certainty.Although it has to be mentioned that very often they can be distinguished with reasonable confidence.The focus of this study however, is on examining their points of overlap and the situations in which they become so united that it gets difficult to tell that the sound belongs to which category. To make this point more evident, ambiguities in the definitions of music and speech will be discussed. In most cases the suggested definitions are either too wide so that they are not able to completely separate the two or too narrow so that they cannot account for all musical or spoken forms. The common elements between music and speech, the most important of which is sound will be examined after. The next part of the paper will be dedicated to parallel concepts in the functional fields of music and speech, concepts like speech act vs. musical act, speech community vs. musical community, and speech event vs. musical event. The objective of this part is to show that music and speech are not only similar when considered independently but also comparable when it comes to their derivatives.These similarities make it easier for musicians to combine the two and make use of spoken forms in their works. This usage and the link between music and speech in different musical forms and genres will be the subject of the last part. The close association of music and speech and their strong attachment in some pieces of music show that they are able to influence one another in more ways than usually expected. At the end it will be concluded that music and speech are two poles of a continuum which have a lot in common. Music and speech can also be converted to ona another and in many cases the point at which this conversion takes place is not definite and precisely detectable. There are definitely some sounds that are closer to either music or speech but there are also many sounds that cannot easily be categorized. The necessity of such research is to challenge the notion that considers music and speech as totally unequivocal and lucid, and ignores their connections.Rethinking these issues will help music to go beyond the limits of conventional definitions and will make its multi dimensionality and its ontological extensiveness, more evident.

Existing Literature on Iranian Classical Music does not cover much information on the rhythmic aspects of the dastgah system. Available literature only provides a categorization of this repertoire into metric (zarbi) and non-metric pieces (avaz). Although such categorization can highlight some distinctions, it basically fails to answer theoretical questions on issues such as background structure, rhtythmic organization of the non-metric sections, rules governing phrase structure, and the significance of non-metric sections.The first step towards analysis of rhythmic structure in Iranian Classical Music and any attempt to answer those questions would be to review the existing literature in a perspective of what we need to know about the forming rules for a so-called free rhythm structure and see if they go in a direction of analysis. The present review is trying to get to a point that sets a starting point for the future analysis, reviewing each of the very few distinct studies on rhythm of Iranian Classical Music, taking their methods into consideration and comparing their results, in order to clarify their limitations and possible routes to answer aforementioned theoretical questions. The few studies can be divided in these four groups: 1) those that tend to categorize the "Gusheh-s" in accordance with their sense of periodicity instead of going toward any kind of understanding of the related timing structure, 2) those that try to relate the phrasings through syllabic structure of the accompanying words to "Aruz" or metrics which usually goes through "AruZ" rules of long and short syllables and then relate to "Iqa" 3) those that have come to find some common rhythmic phrases in different "Gusheh-s", and 4) those (actually one study) that tries to get to a cell-like basic pattern in generating free rhythm phrases. It is shown here that previous studies need to be revised from two points of view at least. One: for the limitations applied by default to each and every one of them but not fully noticed when coming to the final conclusions, e.g. analyzing a phrase on the basis of the words sung with it which has already taken the relations between language rhythm and music for granted, or comparing the sense of periodicity in different "Gusheh-s" without aiming towards any analysis at all, etc. and two for the noticeable.rhythmic/metric variety in the repertoire that needs to be examined carefully in a more independent way. Independent in terms of putting the grounds for the analysis free of words and alike, after which we' ll be able to look for the possible relations or similarities with poetic metrics (ARUZ) or cyclic meters (lqA').

One of the most important issues in the composition of Iranian songs is the selection as well as the recitation of the poem. The significance of this idea can be only viewed in the function of the poetry in forming musical phrases. In this article, two phonetic characters have been studied and their position reviewed as they appear in the "Radif-e Avazi-ye Mahmud Karimi"; The effect of duration of syllable on forming rhythm and The effect of stress on melody. The researches done on language communicate with Iranian music could be descript with two approach. The first approach is emphasized on the meaning of the poetry. These researches have focused on how to utter the poetry and to transfer its meaning by words. The works of Hossein dehlavi (1378), Majid kiani (1371), Mohammad Reza Lotfi (1381), Mansour A' azami kia (1377) and Ruhollah khaleghi (1377) is found on this approach. The second approach in these studies is found on rhythm. Hossein Dehlavi (1378) in his study compares short, long and very long (Keshide) syllables with notes in music. Also, Majid Kiani (1371) have investigated this cases on rhythm in Iranian traditional song. Attention to the duration of syllable, also, could be seen in researches done on music of poetry. These researches are found on the metrical theory. This article intend to investigate Persian language communicate with Iranian music on the basis of linguistic theories. In the other word, this research intends to know the influences of some of the phonetically characters in poetry on forming musical patterns. Therefore, after selection the 15 samples from figures of "Radif-e Mahmud Karimi" have been searched in these items: The identity between the duration of syllable in Persian words and duration of notes. This identity can cause to forming rhythm in Iranian song. - Producing melodic patterns in Iranian song by changing frequency in stressed syllable and changing intonation in Persian sentences. (Interrogative, conditional, imperative, compound, ...). The main object of this article is descript the similarity between the structure of musical specialties of the Persian language and the same ones in the sentences of "Musiqi Dastgahi". In the other word, this research wants to reach to the effect of these characters in poetry, on firming musical patterns. The results of this study are as follows: the duration of syllable in poetry' s words can assign temporal forming notes in Iranian song. Also, in level of stress, the transforming frequency in Persian stress creates the melodic patterns in "Radif-e Avazi". The arrangement of stresses in the syntactical phrases is not usually conforms to the investigated samples. It is because of some distance between the syllables in Iranian song. In the level of sentences and phrases, the variety of the intonation in the sentences of Persian language proportionate with some of the figures in "Radif-e Avazi". These cases cause to some of the techniques like temporarily stopping before"Shahed", also adding a syllable to words' syllables.