ABSTRACT

This article argues that the political thought of one of twentieth-century Iran’s foremost intellectuals, Jalal Al-e Ahmad (1923–1969) and his seminal work Gharbzadegi (1962), often translated as ‘West-struck-ness’ or ‘Westoxication’, can and should be understood through the critical study of race and racialisation. In contrast to the paradigms of ‘nativism’, ‘Islamic atavism’ and the demand for a return to ‘cultural authenticity’ that have traditionally framed the significance and reception of his thought, this article contends that Al-e Ahmad’s notion of gharbzadegi provides crucial insights into how predatory forms of colonial capitalism stratify the economic world order in accordance with what W.E.B. Du Bois famously called the ‘colour line’. The article submits that Al-e Ahmad’s political thought sheds light upon the conditions of Eurocentric and racialised forms of knowledge production and immanent material practices, and how they structure the lived experiences of colonial and semi-colonial subjects, as well as providing a remarkable perspective on how ‘race thinking’ and the ‘racial state’ were conceived and institutionalised in twentieth-century Iran.

摘要

本文认为，二十世纪伊朗最重​​要的知识分子之一贾拉勒·阿尔·艾哈迈德（Jalal Al-e Ahmad，1923-1969年）和他的开创性著作加尔布扎德（Gharbzadegi，1962年）的政治思想通常被翻译为“西征”或“中毒”。通过种族和种族化的批判性研究，可以而且应该理解。与“本土主义”，“伊斯兰无神论”的范式以及回归“文化真实性”的要求形成了传统的思想观念并接受了他的思想形成鲜明对比的是，本文认为艾哈迈德的“ harbzadegi”概念根据WEB Du Bois著名的“色线”，提供了关于殖民资本主义掠夺性形式如何将经济世界秩序分层的重要见解。文章认为，艾哈迈德（Al-e Ahmad）的政治思想阐明了以欧洲为中心和种族化形式的知识生产和内在物质实践的条件，以及它们如何构成殖民和半殖民地主体的生活经历，并提供了令人瞩目的观点。关于20世纪伊朗如何构想和制度化“种族思维”和“种族国家”的问题。