Otherization in Imam Khomeini's Cultural Discourse

Faculty Member, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Adjunct member, Imam Khomeini and Islamic Revolution Research Institute. The present paper is to a somatological study of elements of otherization of alien culture in Imam Khomeini’s cultural discourse. The main question of the present paper is: how the alien culture as the other is represented in Imam Khomeini’s cultural discourse? In order to discuss the problem, Laclau Mouffe’s discourse analysis method has been used and the related works of Imam Khomeini have been used as data sources. The findings of the research indicate that Imam Khomeini by using duo terms such as cultural insecurity and security, light and darkness, subordination and superordination and awareness and humiliation successfully otterized the alien culture as the other of the cultural discourse of the Islamic Revolution. The symbol of Satan and its reflection in the cultural discourse of Imam Khomeini which represents the signifier of Great Satan and its signified, i.e. US-West, is in fact a perceptive cultural defense mechanism.