مرتضی پرویزن

The Islamic Revolution of Iran (۱۹۷۹) can be considered a public event that was simultaneously a theoretical occurrence, organized around the reinterpretation and politicization of the concept of "justice." This dissertation operates on the fundamental premise that justice is not merely a distributive criterion but a world making force effective in the formation of subjectivity and collective meaning making. It undertakes an ontological and discursive analysis of this concept within the context of the Revolution . This research argues that "justice" functioned as an empty/floating signifier within the revolutionary discourse. By articulating various symbols and narratives—from the "oppressed" (*mostaz'afin*) to the myth of Karbala and the language of resistance—it aligned a set of heterogeneous demands around itself, thereby creating a new hegemony. Justice-oriented slogans and the discourses of intellectuals and revolutionary leaders, particularly Imam Khomeini with slogans such as "the oppressed" and "rejection of tyranny," Dr. Ali Shariati with his revolutionary and emancipatory narrative of "Alavid Shi'ism" versus "Safavid Shi'ism," and Morteza Motahhari with his explanation of "divine justice" as the foundation of religious government, demonstrate how justice became a powerful empty signifier and a central nodal point of the revolutionary discourse. This signifier succeeded in hegemonically aligning the disparate demands of a broad spectrum of society . From a theoretical perspective, the dissertation provides an integrated framework that combines political ontology (for understanding the condition of "the political" and the process of depoliticization), Lacanian psychoanalysis (for explaining the split subject, fundamental lack, and the role of fantasy/the symbolic order in enduring lack), and the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe (for analyzing the empty signifier, articulation, and antagonism). Utilizing concepts such as "discursive intertextuality," "discursive restle  ess," "articulation," and "collective fantasy," the dissertation shows how the promises of justice interpellated subjects at the symbolic level and shaped structures of political demand. However, it also reveals how this emancipatory discourse rapidly became stabilized, reducing "the political" to institutionalized and closed "politics," and transforming justice from a dynamic, antagonistic horizon into a static, legitimacy-granting "divine justice ". In other words, the deification and absolutization of justice, by closing the space for critique and reinterpretation, paved the way for the foreclosure of the political and ۲۶۳ led to socio-economic policies that were often incongruent with real conditions and based on idealism. Consequently, justice was transformed from its constructive role as a safety valve for managing social antagonisms into a tool for consolidating hegemony and repression. This study emphasizes that recuperating justice as a dynamic and emancipatory process necessitates a return to the open and antagonistic nature of the political—a realm where discursive restle  ess is understood not as a threat, but as the very possibility for democratic articulations and the perpetual redefinition of justice. This implies reconstructing a public sphere in which discursive instabilities are seen as opportunities for democratic re-articulations and the continuous redefinition of justice. Beyond providing a historical-discursive analysis of the Iranian Revolution's context, this dissertation proposes a theoretical framework that opens new horizons for thinking about the political in comparative and concrete studies concerning the relationship between justice, subjectivity, and practical politics .