pars
Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2015
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Persian
- Home Country
- Iran
- Current Location
- Iran
Hi:
What does "subject position" mean in the following position? It is from the book Nationalizing Iran by Afshin Marashi, p. 24. In order to clarify more, I have included the whole paragraph. The text is about the travel of the Iranian Shah to London. Does it mean "a high status"?
"The reaction of the crowd is difficult to judge. Their shouts of greeting might have stemmed from their perception of the shah as an Asiatic oddity, on display much like the other specimens of oriental culture in the museums and exhibition halls of London. Conversely, their reaction might have been conditioned by the form of the encounter, in the style of the public rituals and ceremonies common at the time.34 Naser al-Din Shah’s status in the culture of Victorian England most likely lay somewhere between these two extremes. From the viewpoint of the shah, however, the experience was unprecedented as a moment when the city became a stage for a kind of communion between himself and the masses. He was suddenly transported into a new subject position, seeing the city from the vantage of a late imperial European sovereign receiving mass adoration in an officially staged urban choreography."
Thanks very much.
What does "subject position" mean in the following position? It is from the book Nationalizing Iran by Afshin Marashi, p. 24. In order to clarify more, I have included the whole paragraph. The text is about the travel of the Iranian Shah to London. Does it mean "a high status"?
"The reaction of the crowd is difficult to judge. Their shouts of greeting might have stemmed from their perception of the shah as an Asiatic oddity, on display much like the other specimens of oriental culture in the museums and exhibition halls of London. Conversely, their reaction might have been conditioned by the form of the encounter, in the style of the public rituals and ceremonies common at the time.34 Naser al-Din Shah’s status in the culture of Victorian England most likely lay somewhere between these two extremes. From the viewpoint of the shah, however, the experience was unprecedented as a moment when the city became a stage for a kind of communion between himself and the masses. He was suddenly transported into a new subject position, seeing the city from the vantage of a late imperial European sovereign receiving mass adoration in an officially staged urban choreography."
Thanks very much.
