Spektrum Iran

Abstract Hamid Dabashi's study Persophilia: Persian Culture on the Global Scene (2015) is a counter draft by the Iranian-American historian Hamid Dabashi to Edward Said’s seminal work Orientalism (first published 1978). While Said only focused on the repressive influence of the colonial powers on the Orient, Dabashi extended the analysis to circular processes of knowledge production in global exchange. He uses numerous examples to show how unintentionally and unknowingly by the colonizers and even against their interests through such exchange processes in the colonies analogous to civil society in Europe, as Habermas has described in his famous book The structural change of the public sphere (1990) public spheres opened up in which social criticism, national Identities and resistance to the colonial powers emerged. In retrospect, European Persophilia, as a variant of Orientalism with positive connotations, made a significant contribution to the emergence of a literary and later political public sphere in Persia (a favorite subject of Dabashi). Central to his numerous examples from linguistics, art and philosophy he emphasizes the influence of the mystical Persian poetry on German Romanticism, illustrated by Hafez’s attraction to Goethe and other poets. Finally, Dabashi looks at parallel political and economic developments in Germany and the Persian cultural area in the 20th century, which favored an amalgamation of poetic-mystical and fascist / National Socialist ideas and thus created the ideological prerequisites for pan-Islamism and political Islam in Iran.

Abstract Ursula Baatz’s article investigated the possibility of intercultural relations between different countries using examples from the distant past and our contemporary times. According to the writer, Goethe is among the examples seeking an audience to speak to the East irrespective of cultural dogmatism, and that is why he wrote the West-Eastern Divan in the time of popular national patriotic poems. This valuable collection clearly aims to bring together the Western and Eastern culture.
The bilateral relation between the East and the West have led to the flourishing of human culture in many periods. But since the 19th century, especially after colonial policy and the expansion of the spirit of industrialization, there has been an unpleasant confrontation over these relations. At this point, the „other” is considered as a subordinate who does not have the talent to accept enlightenment. In such a situation, the rule of ideological thought destroys the cultural relations between nations, and unfortunately, the scope of such destructive thoughts has reached the 20th century, which continues and is renewed in various forms.

Abstract In the poems and the prose of his West-Eastern Divan Goethe implements intercultural balance and dialogue in a way that forces the reader (of all times) to adopt this balance and dialogue by „sceptical agility”. The article shows this by means of five examples: three poems, the extraordinary front cover of the first edition of the Divan (1819) and the Hafis-Goethe-Monument at Weimar. The last one, ornamented with poems of Hafis and Goethe, was inaugurated in 2000.

Abstract The international environment is global and the International Relations Theories as well. There are opposing poles between realist and constructivist approaches. International Relations Theories are developing different notions about the likelihood of a big war. The contrast between geopolitics and realism on the one hand, international institutions, interdependence and interconnectedness on the other hand, mirrors the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and Immanuel Kant.
The „pluralistic security communities” of Karl Deutsch could guarantee peace through common responsibilities, accountability and values of sovereign states. The „international society” can according to Hugo Grotius be designed as „pluralist”, or according to Kant as „solidarist”. The theses of the „democratic peace” interprets Kant’s for peace striving republics as modern stable democracies. Smaller states can stay out of great power conflicts by demonstrating their usefulness in the sense of Kant’s republics that trade with one another and warrant hospitability. The international relations oscillate also in the era of globalization between association and dissociation.

Abstract Many efforts have been made for closeness, reconciliation and understanding between Eastern and Western cultures. But in modern times, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is perhaps the first person to take a major step in this direction, opening a warm embrace of friendship to the East. Goethe’s particular interpretation of Hafez can be a major pivot for a deep intercultural dialogue between the East and the West. Goethe took an important step in moving the West towards this common culture. Goethe's interpretation of Hafez paved the way to this common world culture in the East as well. Perhaps this common culture can be called a „global culture”. This global culture must have two important elements, one from the West and one from the East. It is evident that this culture must be the result and combination of both culture types. „Individuality” (fardiyyat) and „unity of being” (vahdat-e wojoud) are these two elements, which don’t seem to get straight to the point. It seems that Goethe’s interpretation of Hafez is not an interpretation far removed from Hafez’s meanings and intentions, and is deeply correlated with ancient Iranian wisdom.

Abstract Living in our global world, with its daily increasing encountering, or meanwhile mutual penetrating, different cultures requires a permanent intercultural confrontation with the Other, the Foreign and the Non- familiar; an attempt to understand and recognize the Other in his being and so-being. This attempt aims at providing a possibility of horizon extension and thinking together, rather than discovering merely commonalities and differences,. Hereby is literature, as the general substrate, which exceeds the boundaries of all disciplines, the most important medium, of this encountering. Among all the literary genres is poetry, as an „eminent” text in turn, the most significant genre, which leads us to the deep roots of thoughts, feelings, views and beliefs of cultures. This attempt for mutual understanding, however, is accompanied by difficulties, obstacles, incomprehensions and misunderstandings. These disturbances emerge by trying to translate and interpret poetry, especially lyric poems, in foreign languages, which makes them almost untranslatable. We notice these barriers in the attempt of German authors in transmitting the Ghazals of the great Iranian poet Hafiz. This essay tries to show briefly, as an example, the various facets of these difficulties, taking to account a number of German translations of the Ghazal 152 in his Divan.

Abstract Nothing in time and space is static. Everything, including people, is constantly changing. Humans are complex, social beings. The coexistence of traditions, cultures, religions, philosophies etc. has led to an ever-smaller world since the beginning of mankind. In this sense, globalization means i.e. movement and encounter in time and space. The perception of the constant changes in existence is an important step in the direction of acquiring transcultural competence. The understanding of one's own transcultural automatisms even more. The goal is to achieve personal and situation-specific communication and action security in everyday life, professionally and privately, or to optimize existing skills.

Abstract In 1922, Hugo von Hofmannsthal described the city of the Kingdom of Vienna in his „Viennese Letter” as the eastern gateway to Europe. His perception of the Orient probably referred to the Ottoman territory, which also meant the Iranian and Arab world. He considered himself a citizen of the Habsburg Empire, which housed various nations and whose capital was a gateway that reached the West from the outside. Furthermore, it could also open the world of culture to the nations of the East. In the 19th and 20th centuries, interest in the Orient was not only found in literature, but also in paintings, architecture and music. For example, the Arsenal in Vienna is influenced by Andalusian-Islamic architecture. And the Zacherl factory in the Döbling district of Vienna has a mosque-like appearance under the influence of Islamic architecture. Moreover, traces of oriental melodies can be recognized in some of Franz Schubert’s pieces of music.

Abstract This is the story of a young women who left her motherland and fatherland, her culture and language to an unknown country with a new culture and a different language. After a painful period of transition, she succeeded to make the new environment to her own and melted her roots with her new world.

Abstract The concept of development has emerged from the perspective of semantic
analysis by relying on the mental, philosophical and thinking foundations
of the West. It can basically be said that Western knowledge is the essential
basis and driving force of the development concept of the modern age.
Western knowledge has its own worldview, ontology, anthropology, and
epistemological tools. Hence their analysis of the development and their
findings regarding the Islamic perspective on the subject is different. This
article has highlighted that the choice of development patterns is closely
related to the socio-cultural origin of each country and its historical phases.
Therefore, it is necessary to continuously consider these cultural and
historical elements in the path to development.

Abstract What will be discussed in the upcoming article will be the analysis of textbooks from an intercultural perspective. Learning a foreign language is not only communicating in that language, cultural understanding and confrontation is one of the important topics in the field of foreign language learning in today's world. Examining the stereotypes presented in the texts and images of the German language teaching books about one's own culture as the destination country and other countries as the origin country is another topic discussed in this article. Cultural communication and its correct and non-objective presentation will be an important tool and competence in learning and teaching foreign languages, which will help to remove extreme, incorrect, and unrealistic perceptions of the culture of the destination country and other countries involved in teaching and learning its language. Presentation of cultural themes in textbooks should serve to provide a true and uncondescending image of cultural, national, and religious diversity in today's world.

Abstract Intercultural communication has always been a chance to get acquainted with other societies. Due to the vast improvements of communicational technologies like Internet and social media, this chance is now more than any time in history available, which also provides certain people and certain organizations with the possibility to abuse this power for their own goals and benefits. In the age of information and in a world, where its people are more and more connected like the residents of a small village, the need to inform people about these goals is felt more than ever. This situation and its importance was a reason for a study on the history of intercultural communications between Iran and other countries, focusing on the communications between Iran and Germany.