Fantasy, nostalgia and ideology: A Lacanian reading of post-revolutionary Iran

From a common sense point of view, an ideology consists of a convergent set of ideas that promotes and pursues a single strategic cause. However, the argument of this paper is that ideology can be nourished by a seemingly divergent, even antagonistic, set of ideas. To support this argument, this paper refers to the post-revolutionary (1979) Iranian state where, in the face of a series of threatening external others, the theocratic political ideology of the state is complemented/supplemented by a return to an image of classical Persian identity. While the former identity is supported by the Shia value system, the latter draws its inspiration from Persian classical literature. To examine this situation, the current paper adopts a Lacanian perspective on the question of ideology, with a specific focus on the concepts of fantasy and jouissance as elaborated in the works of Lacanian political theorists.