The blind alley by ahmad shamlu

Iranian History Significance Ahmad Shamlus Poem in This Blind Alley Worksheet
Subject
Writing

Question Description
Please provide short answers to 4 of the following questions. 6 sentences each -

What’s the significance of the title of Ahmad Shamlu’s poem “In This Blind Alley”? How does it situate the speaker of the poem vis-à-vis his audience both in relation to time and place?
In his Covering Islam, Edward Said writes: “The Iranians as well as the United States government were perfectly aware that the statements made on television were aimed not only at people who wanted the news but also governments, at partisans of one faction or another, at new or emergent political constituencies. No one has studied the effect of this on “deciding what’s news,” but I believe that a general awareness of it drove United States reporters to think restrictively and reductively in us-versus-them dichotomies” (103). How would you assess Said’s claim?To what extent do you think the Islamic Republic’s self-presentations during the hostage crisis could be seen as a performance for the camera? Have these representations provided a corrective to the stereotypes of Iran in the media?
What is the historical backdrop of Simin Behbahani’s poem “My Country, I will Build You Again”? How would you compare her poem to Said Soltanpour’s “My Country, What Has Come Upon You”?
Edward Said ends his chapter on the hostage crisis with the following questions: “Why does Iran matter, why does Islam matter, and what sort of knowledge, or coverage, of both do we require? This tripartite question is not an abstract one” (125). How would you answer these questions on the basis of what you have studied thus far in the course?