Crafting Environmental Discourse in Iran: The Uses of Mythological Narratives and the Popular Responses

Abstract

With the escalation of environmental problems, there is also a rising demand for public understanding of environmental changes. Most people may understand the harmful impact of environmental destruction and the importance of preserving natural resources. But what tools could be used to persuade and remind people of their environmental responsibilities? Environmental discourse is a means of communication by which interactional and transactional meanings about the environment are transferred. Environmental discourse engages environmental knowledge with various views such as scientific, political, and economic. However, socio-cultural knowledge about the environment is important to connect abstract ideas to peoples’ everyday experiences of the environment. I claim that the use of cultural tools in environmental discourse is a potentially powerful motivator for raising environmental awareness and encouraging personal responsibility.This study examines the persuasive power of cultural tropes and perspectives in environmental discourse in present-day Iran. I focus on a landmark example of government-led public media programming to understand its impact on promoting pro-environmental attitudes and increasing environmental awareness. The 2013 Iranian television series, Āb-pariā [Water Fairy], serves as the foundational discourse text of my research. Inspired by and indexing Persian mythology and cultural practices, the Āb-pariā series addresses several recent environmental problems in Iran with a particular focus on water shortages and drought. The Āb-pariā series conveys its environmental message by indexing shared mythological and cultural signs to evoke viewers’ individual and social memories in order to promote the series’ pro-environmental message. I based my analysis of environmental, mythological, and cultural discourse primarily by using sociocognitive critical discourse analysis as a theoretical and a methodological framework (Van Dijk 1993, 2001, 2008, 2016a, 2016b). My analysis of Āb-pariā discourse revealed cultural and ideological dimensions of environmental and social knowledge. I concluded that Iranian viewers perceive and understand environmentalism by recalling salient historical events and narratives attributed to a collective past. Viewers connected the mythological and cultural signs embedded in the Āb-pariā series to past values and knowledge, allowing them to interpret recent environmental events based on their own experiences. Based on Wertsch’s narrative model (2008), research participants organized their personal experiences by interacting with the Āb-pariā series and its embedded signs. Participants connected their lived stories and environmental attitudes with the environmental theme of the series. My analysis of narratives showed two general patterns; both were associated with a particular pro-environmentalist mental model that served as the basis for discursive thoughts about the causes and effects of environmental problems.