At the beginning of 2018, the Research Center for Culture, Arts and Communication published a collection entitled "National Character and Identity." This collection consists of 5 books, which are briefly explained below:

1- Iranians through Other’s Eyes: The Logic of Understanding Iranian Culture in

Travelogues

 Authors: Jabbar Rahmani and Hossein Mirzaei

One of the prominent features of this work is the fact that it focuses on formation of the travelogues, rather than merely focusing on their contents. The authors of this collection argue that travelogues represent the factor of understanding, i.e. the West and the Traveler, representing the Western tradition, before representing the East. Therefore, understanding the process of understanding in these travelogues is very important.

In this context, the authors have used philosophical hermeneutics ideas of Gadamer's and his emphasis on the understanding of the role of history, tradition, horizon, and language in the incident of understanding and considered it useful for such explanation. That is, the subject of the study is how travelers understood what they have understood. According to Gadamer, the aim is not to theorize the technical skill that should be understood in practice. But, the aim is to study the subject that is occurred in the incident of understanding when facing two horizons and two traditions of two different cultures. Therefore, the authors are looking for factors or elements that are effective in understanding from Gadamerian perspective and cause the possibility or refusal to reach the ideal-dialectical understanding.

2- National Character: A Social-Psychological Perspective

Author: Alex Incles, Translator: Ali Papoli Yazdi

The first chapter of National Identity, entitled "Exploring the Exponential Character and Social-Cultural Systems," examines the broad scientific-research literature on the concept of national character, especially the literature produced after the World War II. The second chapter, "Determining the Limits of National Character: German, Russian, American character," provides examples and evidence mentioned in numerous studies about some of the features of the German nation by focusing on the concept of the German people’s mentality. In the third chapter, Incles examines a study on people of the Soviet society and shows that the image presented in this study is closely consistent with the classic image of Russian character in the Russian history, literature, and travelogues. Continuity in the American character is also another issue described and explained by the author. He studies the United States as the Promised Land and the most perfect imaginable society of the time, mentions the specific features of the American society, opens a detailed chapter discussing these claims, and in the end, speaks about the remarkable continuity of the American character, which he considers as a consequence of the conditions that enables its reproduction. In the next chapter, the author again provides a solid definition of the national character and asks about how to measure it. That is, in this chapter, the national character is defined as an institutional pattern, a cultural theme, an action, and finally a combination of these elements. In sum, with a retrospective and forward looking at the concept of national character, Incles notes the growth of literature in the field of national character and compares some common indicators among several countries.

3. Myth Makers: Genealogy of Works of Iranian Character Writers in the Last 50 Years

Author: Armin Amir

This book is a research and exquisite work on criticizing the approach of Persian character writers who has often attributed negative traits to Iranians, and whose works have frequently been reprinted, even without scientific and theoretical backing, for an audience who is thirsty for the truth and wants to escape the ethical stalemates of Iranian society.

The author begins the introduction of his book with the argument that at the dawn of the modern era, Montesquieu’s Iranian bibliographies opened up a new chapter in exploring the Iranian sprite. Though some travelogues from Europeans were published before and after, systematic research on the characteristics of the Iranian national character dates back to the time after the publication of the iconic work of this great Enlightenment philosopher. In general, the author of the book seeks to recognize the efforts of Iranian scholars and experts for understanding Iranian characters.

4. The Most Non-Iranians Iranians: The Iranian Character in the View of Familiar Foreigners

Author: Mohammad Reza Javadi Yeganeh

In this book, the author speaks of those foreign observers who have provided a different and deeper understanding of the Iranian character and identity through coexistence and spending more years of their lives in Iran than other foreigners have. This book, which is a collection of the author’s writings about these kinds of foreigners, does not necessarily include the most famous texts of this field, but contains the author's personal choices based on the reading of about 500 travelogues, letters, reports and documents that foreigners have written and published about Iran and Iranians in Persian

5. Travelogue Writing: A Look at the Developments of Travel Writing in the West

Author: Carl Thompson, Translator: Saeideh Zadghannad

The Iranian travelogue research is often stuck at descriptions or seek to examine travelogues through the concept of "other" and by borrowing concepts from Orientalist approach. On the other hand, the novelty of this field of study in Iran and the relative weakness of resources that directly shape travelogue research patterns have led to some wrong analyses in recent years. This can lead to a new and even different look into the field of travelogue research studies in Iran, especially its perceptions of national character and identity, and help Iranian scholars working in the field of travelogue research studies.