The representation of women’s gender roles In the Iranian cinema : a study of the stranger (2014)

Abstract

La película iraní La forastera (Bigāneh, 2014) dirigida por Bahram Tavakoli, es una adaptación libre de A Streetcar Named Desire, de Tennessee Williams. Tanto la obra como su adaptación versan sobre la condición de las mujeres. Pretendemos explorar comparativamente los roles de género de las mujeres, representados en el drama y en su adaptación. Tras examinar los roles genéricos de las mujeres como esposas, madres y hermanas, se concluye que el director iraní ha adaptado exitosamente el personaje de Stella a la cultura iraní, como Sepideh. Manteniendo el argumento del texto fuente, ha creado un nuevo personaje que se imbrica en la cultura iraní-islámica. En cambio, ha incorporado el personaje de Blanche-Nasrin para contrastar con una mujer ideal en el contexto iraní. Nasrin pertenecería más al mundo de Williams, debido a sus pautas de comportamiento, ajenas a los códigos culturales de Irán, de raíz islámica

The Iranian movie The Stranger (Bigāneh, 2014), directed by Bahram Tavakoli is a free adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Both the play and its adaptation concentrate on the life and condition of women. In the present study, we aim to assess comparatively the gender roles of women represented in the play and its Iranian adaptation to see how these roles have been de/stabilized. After investigating the roles of women as wives, mothers, and sisters, it is concluded that the Iranian director has been successful in appropriating Stella’s character to the Islamic-Iranian culture. In order to highlight her characteristics as an ideal woman in the Iranian context, he has reconstructed the character of Blanche-Nasrin so as to create a dichotomy between Iranian and western cultures. Nasrin would belong more to Williams’s world because of her alien behavioral characteristics to the cultural codes of Iranians which are based on Islamic doctrines