Document Type : Scientific Research Manuscript
Author
Assistant Professor, Department of Media Arts, Faculty of Religion and Media, IRIB University, Tehran, Iran
10.22035/jicr.2026.3563.3784
Abstract
This article is a philosophical–analytical inquiry into the capacities of narrative arts for cultivating a culture of peace. Contrary to the reductive understanding of peace as the mere “absence of war,” the author, drawing on virtue ethics as well as findings from narratology and psychology, seeks to demonstrate that sustainable peace requires the cultivation of inner virtues—such as empathy, practical wisdom, epistemic humility, justice-orientation, and self-restraint—alongside accountable institutions. The research adopts an integrative and interdisciplinary methodology, combining theoretical reconstruction of virtue-ethical concepts, conceptual analysis of narrative mechanisms, and close textual readings of four Iranian case studies: the novel Savushun, the play The Death of Yazdegerd, the opera Rostam and Sohrab, and the film A Separation. The findings indicate that narratives possess the capacity to transform attitudes into peace-building action through the cultivation of moral imagination, the enhancement of cognitive and affective empathy, the training of situational practical wisdom, emotional regulation, and the organization of collective memory. The analysis of the case studies further confirms that each branch of narrative art performs a distinct function: literature trains situational judgment, theatre educates collective dialogue and polyphony, narrative music manages affect and symbolic formation, and cinema provides complex sites of empathy while revealing the role of institutions. The article also emphasizes the necessity of linking narrative works to institutional mechanisms and educational programs in order to translate symbolic impact into structural change. The conclusion is that narrative arts can constitute a component of the cultural infrastructure of positive peace; however, substantiating precise causal relations requires longitudinal empirical research, a task that remains incumbent upon future studies.
Keywords
Subjects
