A case of historical adaptation in Iranian media: Shahrzad as a palimpsestuous hive of intertextuality

Abstract

A comprehensive command of national (Persian) and Western (mainly English/American) literary traditions and a deep knowledge of historical events form the backbone of the cinematographic oeuvre of Hassan Fathi, an Iranian director noted for his “historian-adaptor” approach toward filmmaking. This being the case, in his Shahrzad series (2015–2018), the director details the August 1953 coup d’état in Iran as an intertextual scenario in which a mélange of literary and cinematic “texts” and fictional characters along with historical figures are brought together in a dynamic and interactive process. In an undertaking that gives the series an interesting postmodern character, Fathi, instead of adapting a single literary work, engages in animating this historical event by interweaving One Thousand and One Nights, Othello, andThe Godfather together. Taking advantage of adaptation theory as its theoretical framework, this paper attempts to delineate how, in terms of storyline and characterization, theseriesstagesthesemultiple“texts” simultaneously. Overall, the paper proposes that Shahrzad is a palimpsestuous hive of intertextuality.