Remoulding of Ideology through Remediation: Axe and Deforestation as Gender Metaphors in an Animation and a Picture Book in Iran

Abstract

This article examines an intermedial adaptation, focusing on the potentials of two different media in the presentation of conflicting ideologies in Iran: Tabar (“Axe”) (1980, dir. Ahmad Arabani), a silent animation, and the picture book of the same title, by Shekoofeh Taqi and Manoochehr Dehqan, published in 1985. The two works have been chosen because they were both published at a time when Iran was tackling serious internal and external tensions after the Islamic Revolution. The ideological content of both the picture book and the animation can shed light on the discourse of didacticism that prevailed in Iran during the 1980s. Both works feature deforestation as a threat, but patriotism is the theme of the animation, whereas female resistance against male oppression is the message of the picture book.