The Ideology of Nation-Building in the Pahlavi Iran

The main goal of this research is to know the structure of the ideology of nation-building in the Pahlavi Iran. Also, it aims at illustrating the relationship among different signifiers in this ideology. Using the main concepts of “ideology critique” as a Lacanian- Ž􀆽 ižekian theory, the author shows that the ideology of nation-building in Pahlavi era included three layers of signifiers including ancient nationalism, authoritarian modernism and conventional religion which were articulated around “nation” as the master-signifier. Such an ideology manifested itself in such “realities” as centralism, uneven development and the weakening of native languages and cultural heritages. Finally, because this ideology like other ideologies could not capture the Real (in its Lacanian meaning) the Real returned and destroyed the purity claimed by the symbolic order. This returning was manifested as revolution.