Representation of Power Discourse in Iranian Cinema: Language, Silence, and the Body in Taste of Cherry

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
Mojtaba Monshizadeh 1
Morteza Asemani 2
Ali Rabiei 3
1 Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Department of Linguistics, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran
2 Department, Faculty, University, Institute, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Persian Language and Literature and Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch. Tehran, Iran
3 Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Department of English, Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
10.48311/eijh.2026.117294.82810
Abstract
This qualitative study employs multimodal critical discourse analysis to examine how power is represented in Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry. Integrating Michel Foucault's conception of power relations, Norman Fairclough's (1995) model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and Peircean-Barthesian semiotics, the research investigates how speech, silence, and the body function as discursive and visual-semiotic elements within the film's narrative structure. Through close analysis of six key scenes selected for their semantic density and discursive tension, the study interprets the body as a signifier of ideological struggle and silence as a mechanism of resistance embedded in power relations. The findings reveal that Kiarostami constructs a decentralized configuration of power: the omission of dialogue and the visual presence of the body actively destabilize conventional models of domination. Moreover, ambiguity and narrative suspension function not merely as stylistic devices but as discursive strategies that foreground agency, exclusion, and biopolitical tension within Iranian art cinema. Ultimately, this research demonstrates how cinematic form itself becomes a site of discursive struggle and a means of reconfiguring hegemonic power

Keywords

Subjects