Self-Orientalized Adaptation of Miller’s Death of a Salesman in Iran

The raise of Islamophobia in post 9/11 era caused the occurrence of countless negative images of Muslims, especially that of the Middle East. The importance of Muslims’ artistic creations in the circulation of uncivilized images of the Orient is the gap that this article tries to fill. Ali Behdad, the Neo-Orientalist scholar utilizes the term ‘self-Orientalizing’ to explain the way the Orient represents itself visually as the West’s Other. Asghar Farhadi, an acclaimed filmmaker and the representative of Iran in international festivals, adapted an American canonical play. He claimed that his goal is to break the stereotypes of various nationalities and religions. This paper aims to scrutinize Farhadi’s The Salesman (2016), an adaptation of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949), based on the theories of Ali Behdad. It is concluded that in spite of Farhadi’s effort to represent Iranian and Muslim people as a civilized nation who care for women’s right, the message that is conveyed to the western audience can be the opposite.