A Critical Analysis of the Transformation Process and the Methods used to Show Oriental-Iranian Life in James Morier's Speech based on Haji Baba Esfahani’ Biography Novel

Taking van Dijk's theory and critical approach, this study sought to examine the discursive strategies employed by James Morier in the transformation and representation of Oriental-Iranian life. To do so, by examining Haji Baba Esfahani’s biography novel, the study attempted to answer the following questions: 1) How did Morier's ideology affect his speech? 2) How are the identity and life of the Eastern-Iranian represented in the speech of this Western and Christian writer? 3) What are the most practical methods and strategies to identify Morier's ideology in the novel? To this end, the authors have critically examined the role of these representations in the production processes of colonial discourse. The data were collected from libraries, and the research method was descriptive-analytical. The findings demonstrated that Morier's discourse contains representations of the East as it has been conceived by Western Orientalists, which is seen as “other” in their ideology and connected to racism. On the basis of this ideology, Morier has attempted to present an unpleasant picture of Iranian society during the Qajar era by changing the negative image and giving himself identity by attributing negative traits to Iranians. It is worth noting that ideological structures are expressed in several ways in the novel’s discourse in terms of “meaning”, “formal structures”, and “rhetoric”.