علی قمیلو

Iranian Studies, a facet of Orientalism, has long intrigued Western academia. This research explores the alignment of the Institute of Iranian Studies (IFI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) with Edward Said's Postcolonial Theory, questioning if IFI's work mirrors Said's views on the colonial roots of Orientalism. The research posits that the IFI's undertakings neither manifest a colonial inclination nor align seamlessly with Said's theoretical framework. To substantiate this claim, four seminal publications from the IFI were subjected to a directed content analysis based on constructing a research categories matrix, influenced by Said's postcolonial paradigm (Orientalism). Within this matrix, columns demarcate four representational domains: Politics, Society, Culture, and Religion, while rows differentiate six dichotomous concepts, including Similarity-Difference; Equality-Inferiority; Internal Convergence-Divergence; External Convergence-Divergence; Progress-Backwardness; and Freedom-Despotism. The findings suggest that the IFI's selected works portray Iran in a predominantly positive light across all domains. Thus, it appears that the IFI's 21st-century scholarly contributions diverge from Edward Said's postcolonial critique of Orientalism, with distinct differences in approach and perspective. However, considering Said's critique primarily targets works of English-speaking Orientalists from colonial powers, the conclusions of this research don't necessarily counter his theory. It suggests caution in generalizing Said's framework to German-speaking Orientalists, or more specifically, to the outputs of the IFI.