Tracing Iranian affective infrastructures in Persian epic: A Posthumanist reading

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Core concepts of the posthumanist turn—distributed agency, relationality, non-human individuality, assemblage—are usually presented as late twentieth-century Western conceptualizations. This paper argues that traces of these constructs appear as affective infrastructures in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (4th century AH). A close reading of the Simorgh in Zal's upbringing, Rostam's symbiotic bond with Rakhsh, and Attar's Conference of the Birds shows that Persian epic contains an early articulation of posthumanism with deep effects on Iranians' affective infrastructures and resilience. Drawing on Latour, Haraway, and Bennett, I argue that heterogeneous human and non-human elements of Iranian epic display agency in various forms. The recent invocation of Rostam and the Simorgh as sources of resistance and national cohesion in war demonstrates the enduring vitality of premodern posthumanist frameworks in Iran. By reversing the temporal and geographical hierarchy of Western theory, the paper reveals diverse genealogies of posthumanist thought from a postcolonial perspective. Reading the Shahnameh as an independent theory opens new opportunities for Iranian cultural studies and for localizing posthumanist thought. The central claim is that attention to forgotten premodern, non-Western articulations of posthumanism, and to the living, affective subjectivity of the Shahnameh, is essential.

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  • Receive Date 27 April 2026
  • Revise Date 23 July 2026
  • Accept Date 01 August 2026