Omid Tofighian
Biographic Data
| ID | 1356419 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Omid Tofighian |
| GIVEN NAMES | Omid |
| FAMILY NAME | Tofighian |
| SIGNATURE | TOFIGHIAN O |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4862-1135 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Translation in Digital Times
On 12 February 2020, while on an international tour promoting Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, the translator of the book, Omid Tofighian, participated in a seminar at Utrecht University, organised by Australian academic, Anna Poletti (associate professor of English language and culture, Utrecht University). Poletti is also co-editor of the journal Biography: an interdisciplinary quarterly, which publishe…
Performance as Intersectional Resistance
Australia’s brutal carceral-border regime is a colonial system of intertwining systems of oppression that combine the prison-industrial complex and the border-industrial complex. It is a violent and multidimensional regime that includes an expanding prison industry and onshore and offshore immigration detention centres; locations of cruelty, and violent sites for staging contemporary politics and coloniality. This article shares insights into the…
On Representing Extreme Experiences in Writing and Translation
On 10 June 2021, the Norwegian translator Signe Prøis (for publisher Camino Forlag) organised an event with both Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian (both by video link from New Zealand and Australia) in conversation with translation studies scholar Erlend Wichne (University of Agder, Norway; Agder forum for translation studies). The event was titled: ‘Can I translate it? On representing extreme experiences in writing and translation’. The dialog…
Narrative, Resistance and Manus Prison Theory
In early 2020 Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian conducted a speaking tour of the United States, Canada, UK, and Europe (including Ireland). They presented at numerous universities, including the University of Cambridge. In their Cambridge talk they focused on the transformative potential of storytelling and the importance of creating new intellectual frameworks for resistance. Key themes and issues in their discussion included features of Manus…
Introducing Manus Prison theory
Manus Prison theory is a coherent intellectual, creative and political project inspired over four years of ongoing research and organizing between Behrouz Boochani and Tofighian in what we refer to as a shared philosophical activity. Similar collaboration, consultation and sharing precede the project and include networks of scholarship and collective action. The theory has experienced a heightened interest and urgency since the release of No Frie…
No Friend but the Mountains and Manus prison theory
This article is an edited version of a conversation that took place on 4 August 2019 at the State Library of Queensland located on the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera peoples. This article is part of a series of published conversations between Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian, author and translator (one instalment also includes interlocutors from a 2020 UK tour), about the book No Friend but the Mountains and Manus Prison theory. …
Translation as Freedom, Experimentation, and Sharing
After the publication of No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison and the book being awarded the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature, Behrouz Boochani and translator and collaborator Omid Tofighian (Farsi-English) were invited to speak at many festivals together, in addition to seminars, workshops, and other venues. A small number of events focused on translation, and in June 2019 Tofighian participated in two sessions at the Emergi…
Behrouz Boochani and the Manus Prison narratives
No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison is a literary work typed using mobile phone text messaging and produced after five years of indefinite detention in the Australian-run immigration detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Behrouz Boochani’s Manus Prison narratives represent the fusion of journalism, political commentary and philosophical reflection with myth, epic, poetry and folklore. By experimenting with multipl…
Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues
Myth and Regulation
Tofighian’s analysis of the Phaedo considers the thematic and philosophical significance of the underworld myth and its structural role in the text. He identifies the myth’s relationship to the plot, character selection, symbolism, and the arrangement and style of the different arguments. Tofighian engages with Lévi-Strauss’s theory of binary systems in relation to myth and argues that the closing narrative contrasts philosophical and religious c…
Where Does Myth Belong?
Tofighian summarizes his ‘mutual scaffolding’ method and how he applies it to interpret the interdependent relationship between myth and philosophy in the Meno, Protagoras, Phaedo, Phaedrus, and the Atlantis myth. He reiterates the values of his approach by explaining the significance of addressing and harmonizing sections on (1) theme introduction, setting, and narrative; (2) myth analysis; (3) the philosophical arguments; (4) mutual scaffolding…
The Atlantis Myth and Cultural Identity
Told in parts through the Timaeus and Critias, the Atlantis myth operates as a form of self-reflection and critique for Plato. Tofighian interprets the connection between the story and Plato’s arguments for statecraft, epistemology, and metaphysics. The tale is a philosophically potent literary device that uses an apocalyptic fantasy trope and expresses a particular form of Athenian nationalism. Tofighian describes Bruce Lincoln’s work on the rel…
Myth and Partnership
Tofighian examines the introduction (frame dialogue) to the Protagoras and explains its relevance for interpreting the philosophical arguments. Both the dramatic form that opens the dialogue and the beginning of Socrates’s narration of events contain elements that complement scenes and ideas pertaining to Protagoras’s myth. Tofighian examines how Plato presents a somewhat challenged and sometimes unconvincing Socrates; Socrates is neither heroic …
Myth and Instruction
Tofighian explores Socrates’s references to myth and religious tradition in the Meno and the way myth impacts the dialectical exchange with Meno. By introducing mythic themes, Socrates demonstrates how subsequent arguments draw their validity from the views presented by a sacred narrative. Tofighian analyzes two major issues: (a) how the myth intertwines with the dialogue’s story line or plot and (b) how the myth influences the most important lit…
Conflict and Development in Iranian Film
The chapters in this volume explore the philosophical underpinnings and cinematic techniques characteristic of Iranian film. Collectively, they show how the pervasive themes of Iranian cinema, such as martyrdom and war, gender roles, and social policy issues have been addressed, and how directors have approached them using a variety of techniques. Some chapters outline the poetic and mystical dimensions of Abbas Kiarostami's movies. Other chapter…
Introducing Manus Prison theory
Manus Prison theory is a coherent intellectual, creative and political project inspired over four years of ongoing research and organizing between Behrouz Boochani and Tofighian in what we refer to as a shared philosophical activity. Similar collaboration, consultation and sharing precede the project and include networks of scholarship and collective action. The theory has experienced a heightened interest and urgency since the release of No Frie…
Behrouz Boochani and the Manus Prison narratives
No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison is a literary work typed using mobile phone text messaging and produced after five years of indefinite detention in the Australian-run immigration detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Behrouz Boochani’s Manus Prison narratives represent the fusion of journalism, political commentary and philosophical reflection with myth, epic, poetry and folklore. By experimenting with multipl…
Conflict and Development in Iranian Film
The chapters in this volume explore the philosophical underpinnings and cinematic techniques characteristic of Iranian film. Collectively, they show how the pervasive themes of Iranian cinema, such as martyrdom and war, gender roles, and social policy issues have been addressed, and how directors have approached them using a variety of techniques. Some chapters outline the poetic and mystical dimensions of Abbas Kiarostami's movies. Other chapter…
Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues
Myth and Regulation
Tofighian’s analysis of the Phaedo considers the thematic and philosophical significance of the underworld myth and its structural role in the text. He identifies the myth’s relationship to the plot, character selection, symbolism, and the arrangement and style of the different arguments. Tofighian engages with Lévi-Strauss’s theory of binary systems in relation to myth and argues that the closing narrative contrasts philosophical and religious c…
Where Does Myth Belong?
Tofighian summarizes his ‘mutual scaffolding’ method and how he applies it to interpret the interdependent relationship between myth and philosophy in the Meno, Protagoras, Phaedo, Phaedrus, and the Atlantis myth. He reiterates the values of his approach by explaining the significance of addressing and harmonizing sections on (1) theme introduction, setting, and narrative; (2) myth analysis; (3) the philosophical arguments; (4) mutual scaffolding…
The Atlantis Myth and Cultural Identity
Told in parts through the Timaeus and Critias, the Atlantis myth operates as a form of self-reflection and critique for Plato. Tofighian interprets the connection between the story and Plato’s arguments for statecraft, epistemology, and metaphysics. The tale is a philosophically potent literary device that uses an apocalyptic fantasy trope and expresses a particular form of Athenian nationalism. Tofighian describes Bruce Lincoln’s work on the rel…
Myth and Partnership
Tofighian examines the introduction (frame dialogue) to the Protagoras and explains its relevance for interpreting the philosophical arguments. Both the dramatic form that opens the dialogue and the beginning of Socrates’s narration of events contain elements that complement scenes and ideas pertaining to Protagoras’s myth. Tofighian examines how Plato presents a somewhat challenged and sometimes unconvincing Socrates; Socrates is neither heroic …
Myth and Instruction
Tofighian explores Socrates’s references to myth and religious tradition in the Meno and the way myth impacts the dialectical exchange with Meno. By introducing mythic themes, Socrates demonstrates how subsequent arguments draw their validity from the views presented by a sacred narrative. Tofighian analyzes two major issues: (a) how the myth intertwines with the dialogue’s story line or plot and (b) how the myth influences the most important lit…
Behrouz Boochani and the Manus Prison narratives
No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison is a literary work typed using mobile phone text messaging and produced after five years of indefinite detention in the Australian-run immigration detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Behrouz Boochani’s Manus Prison narratives represent the fusion of journalism, political commentary and philosophical reflection with myth, epic, poetry and folklore. By experimenting with multipl…
Narrative, Resistance and Manus Prison Theory
In early 2020 Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian conducted a speaking tour of the United States, Canada, UK, and Europe (including Ireland). They presented at numerous universities, including the University of Cambridge. In their Cambridge talk they focused on the transformative potential of storytelling and the importance of creating new intellectual frameworks for resistance. Key themes and issues in their discussion included features of Manus…
Introducing Manus Prison theory
Manus Prison theory is a coherent intellectual, creative and political project inspired over four years of ongoing research and organizing between Behrouz Boochani and Tofighian in what we refer to as a shared philosophical activity. Similar collaboration, consultation and sharing precede the project and include networks of scholarship and collective action. The theory has experienced a heightened interest and urgency since the release of No Frie…
No Friend but the Mountains and Manus prison theory
This article is an edited version of a conversation that took place on 4 August 2019 at the State Library of Queensland located on the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera peoples. This article is part of a series of published conversations between Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian, author and translator (one instalment also includes interlocutors from a 2020 UK tour), about the book No Friend but the Mountains and Manus Prison theory. …
Translation as Freedom, Experimentation, and Sharing
After the publication of No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison and the book being awarded the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature, Behrouz Boochani and translator and collaborator Omid Tofighian (Farsi-English) were invited to speak at many festivals together, in addition to seminars, workshops, and other venues. A small number of events focused on translation, and in June 2019 Tofighian participated in two sessions at the Emergi…
Performance as Intersectional Resistance
Australia’s brutal carceral-border regime is a colonial system of intertwining systems of oppression that combine the prison-industrial complex and the border-industrial complex. It is a violent and multidimensional regime that includes an expanding prison industry and onshore and offshore immigration detention centres; locations of cruelty, and violent sites for staging contemporary politics and coloniality. This article shares insights into the…
On Representing Extreme Experiences in Writing and Translation
On 10 June 2021, the Norwegian translator Signe Prøis (for publisher Camino Forlag) organised an event with both Behrouz Boochani and Omid Tofighian (both by video link from New Zealand and Australia) in conversation with translation studies scholar Erlend Wichne (University of Agder, Norway; Agder forum for translation studies). The event was titled: ‘Can I translate it? On representing extreme experiences in writing and translation’. The dialog…
Translation in Digital Times
On 12 February 2020, while on an international tour promoting Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, the translator of the book, Omid Tofighian, participated in a seminar at Utrecht University, organised by Australian academic, Anna Poletti (associate professor of English language and culture, Utrecht University). Poletti is also co-editor of the journal Biography: an interdisciplinary quarterly, which publishe…
Art (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Literature (9 works) · Narrative (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Prison (8 works) · Criminology (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Linguistics (6 works) · Manus (6 works)