جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « نشانه های فرهنگی » در نشریات گروه « هنر و معماری »

With the collapse of the Qajar dynasty and the rise of the Pahlavi government, Iran underwent many changes. The main thing that Pahlavi paid too much attention to was naming Iran as a country which has an independent identity in the whole world. Since the concept of "identity" is always hidden in the content of a "culture", the culture of any country or nation represents the identity of that country and that nation.  The ideals of the Pahlavi government were all those things that were mostly planned with constitutionalism and continued under the shadow of the intellectuals' support and the authority of Reza Shah, in the form of an imperative modernism. Based on this, the cultural policymakers of the first Pahlavi era, in order to build a desired "national identity", formed a discourse space so that they could advance their ideology.  A secular policy that tried to weaken the role of religion as much as possible compared to the culture and civilization of ancient Iran.  Therefore, a cultural sphere was formed on the basis and core of the Iranian identity. The desire of the Pahlavi statesmen to modernize Iran in line with global developments required that modernity, secularism and Westernism be part of the transparent layers of this cultural sphere, and they were other components compared to the two layers of nationalism and antiquarianism. Totally, these components formed a sphere that legitimized the cultural discourses of the first Pahlavi and gave meaning to all kinds of signs within it with the denotation system it produced and made them its own.  As Lutman pointed out, everything outside of this sphere was a chaotic world of zeal and unculture that had to be crossed to enter this sphere. Crossing the border meant harmonizing with the components inside the sphere.  Here, every traditional matter, if it wanted to enter this sphere, had to be coordinated with the discourses emerging from this cultural sphere, but the traditional arts, specifically painting, were able to continue within the cultural sphere of the Pahlavi period because it is one of the components of the second layer.  The transparency of this concept was "nationalism", traditional arts were considered a part of Iran's ancient history, which could include cultural and historical credit for Iran. As a result, focusing on traditional arts could both emphasize the values ​​of Iran's cultural history and be in line with the goals of cultural propaganda which Pahlavi used; As a result, organizations such as the National Works Association were established in an attempt to institutionalize and systematize traditional arts.  Reza Shah himself emphasized that he should be recognized as a person who has brought about the revival of Iranian national arts.  In the meantime, painting gained special importance and was able to find a special place in the discourse of Iranian art after about three centuries.  The attention of the academic and artistic circles of the world to Iranian arts, especially painting, the compatibility of painting with aspects of nationalism and its historical function, highlighted the place of this art in the cultural sphere of this period.  The establishment of museums and the participation of painters in world exhibitions and the establishment of art conservatories were some of the steps that made the painting of this period the beginning of a new trend in traditional Iranian painting, and as it was analyzed, the harmony with the components of the cultural sphere of the first Pahlavi period played an important role in the expansion of this art in this era; So during the Pahlavi period, painting flourished again, and many artists of the Qajar school, who worked on lacquer works, also turned to painting.  Among their prominent examples were Haj Mosavar-ul-Molki and Hossein Behzad.
 Now, according to the rule of the discourse of modernism, painting should have certain characteristics so that it can gain legitimacy by crossing the border of the cultural sphere of this period.  We have already seen that the core of the first Pahlavi cultural sphere with the centrality of Iranian identity was surrounded by many layers, especially modernism and nationalism.  But instead, nationalism first of all required the consolidation of historical and national values; therefore, the duality of "modernity" and "authenticity" were placed against each other.  Reza Shah's cultural policy needed both of these in order to consolidate his soft power, as much as modernism was able to redefine culture in line with Pahlavi policies, at the same time it was able to marginalize some foundations of traditional culture, including artistic types, from the cultural field.  This was if the government needed to keep some traditions alive to instill a sense of patriotism and a sense of rootedness in Iranians.  This is where the need to selectively revive some traditions became important.  An example of this policy can be seen in Reza Shah's speech to students sent abroad: "I don't want to turn Iranians into a bad European version.  This is not necessary because there are strong traditions behind them. These traditions helped to form a fusion between different historical periods as well as among the many ethnic groups of Iran. In first Pahlavi’s art, there is a companionship between tradition and modernism; in order to have a correct way of applying this combination to art, first of all it should be brought in to the system of education, that is, establishing institutions for teaching, researching and preserving the heritage of traditional arts, which led to the establishment of institutions such as "Association of National Artifacts" or " It became the "Higher Academy of Iranian Arts".  The Association of National Artifacts became the base of elites who tried to make the Iranian nationalistic trend public from the heart of its cultural history and traditions.  As it was described, a set of policies was formed in the field of culture, which led to a cultural sphere, which, according to Yuri Lutman's theory, was made of the core of Iranian identity and the transparent layers of modernity, nationalism, archaism, secularism, and Westernism.  According to this approach, any kind of cultural event that occurs during the Pahlavi era must be adapted to the components within it by crossing the border of this cultural sphere so that it can be accepted in this cultural system.  Based on this, the problem of this research is the status and position of painting within the cultural sphere of the Pahlavi era.  The research method is also the description of the cultural conditions of the first Pahlavi period and its analysis based on Lutman's symbolic sphere theory, with the aim of obtaining a more detailed understanding of the relationship between the cultural policies of that era and painting.  The findings show that the desire of the first Pahlavi government to build a new national identity made the historical components the most important pillar of the ideology of nationalism in this era, which led to the support of traditional arts and painting, which was revived in the wake of nationalist currents. Global attention to Iranian art, especially book design, was another factor in the prosperity of painting in this era.

In the discourse of Safavid era, we could see a duality-centered and opposition, placing Shiite Safavids in tension with Uzbek Hanafi and Sunni Ottomans. According to the paradigm of cultural semiotics, it is within this opposition and tension that semantics is taken place. Safavid is regarded within the culture, internal actor, and east neighbors or the enemy within no culture, nature or the other. Since the art is regarded such as a pattern –maker system in cultural semiotics, it could be at the service of discourse and ideology, showing this duality-centered and opposition. One of the most important advertising media along this oppositional semantics at Safavid era, is the illustrated manuscript of Tahmasbi Shahnameh. The seven labors of Rostam's story and its illustration by the artists of this period is a remarkable example of duality-centered, created in the discourse atmosphere of Safavid Shiite government against Sunni religion governments of neighborhoods, showing hero and antihero within an oppositional system, and involved of dominant discourse. The aim of the present research is to analyze the oppositional system of Rostam's seven labors miniatures in Tahmasbi Shahnameh by respecting a cultural semiotics pattern within the discourse dominated on that period and, to answer these questions: How an artist has illustrated the oppositional system of hero and antihero in miniatures of Rostam's seven labors in Tahmasbi Shahnameh? To what extent the miniatures have been affected by the oppositional discourse of Shiite and Sunni governments? The results of research indicate that the oppositional system of Safavid discourse and ideology has been established in the cultural-artistic text of this period and the artist utilized metaphorical description at the service of this discourse for marking the oppositional system. The method of research is historical-interpretive and within the miniature readings, descriptive-analytic one. In addition, the method of collecting the data is through library studies.

The Qajar’s collapse and the rise of Pahlavi was a beginning of a new cultural system in Iran. Modernism and other debates derived from it such as Nationalism, Secularism and Archaism led to lots of cultural transformations that its important part was a tendency towards western culture: But despite of this tendency towards the modernity and western culture, this era was a beginning point for the traditional arts, especially for Iranian paintings. Now the question is which factors, in the Pahlavi’s modern cultural atmosphere, intensified paying attention to Iranian paintings and made a new wave of stylistic transformations in it? with this question and the aim of recognizing the process of renovation and transformation in the First Pahlavian era’s Iranian paintings, this article deals with the factors which influenced on the transformations of the First Pahlavian era’s Iranian paintings. This article, in order to draw a Semiosphere uses the Yuri Lotman’s Semiosphere theory which led to design a pattern of an Iranian painting’s semiosphere with a core which is Iranian painting’s Isfahan school and its margins that are such factors as being affected by the European paintings, Individualism and getting influenced by the dominant semantic horizon of that era. Based on this pattern, First Pahlavian era’s Iranian painters taking Isfahan school as a core tantamount to an original and national element, made a set of transformations in the Iranian paintings of that era which all of them were based on First Pahlavi era’s various cultural debates. Meanwhile this accompaniment of Iranian paintings with the debate of Pahlavi Modernism in the shape of being affected by the Europian painting, Individualism and dominant semantic horizon made so many changes in the form of Iranian paintings which led to the prosperity and legitimacy of this type of art in First Pahlavi era. Iranian Paintings’ semiosphere in Pahlavi era is based on the Safavi era’s Iranian paintings specially based on Reza Abbasi’s works. But in this era this type of Paintings added some new elements to the old one. So, some radical changes have occurred in the revived version of Iranian paintings that couldn’t be seen in the past. The faces of characters have been altered to the Iranian faces instead of Mongolian ones. Under the influence of the Government’s attitude as an anti-religious one, religious themes were not be chosen by artists to be drawn. In the Pahlavi Iranian Paintings, yet the link between literature and Iranian Paintings is seen. The paintings drawn for the Khayyam, Hafiz and Ferdowsi’s poems or verses are the best examples to indicate this link. In this era, artists were under the influence of the western style of paintings and as a result some factors were added to the Iranian Paintings such as Perspective. Presence of tourists and artists’ journeys to foreign countries, specially to Europe, added these events to this traditional art. Besides, there was a real tendency towards Iranian culture, literature and art in Europe which made the Iranian people interested in their culture and art as well. Under the influence the influence of the layers of cultural sphere of the first Pahlavi era the layers of the Iranian paintings of this era were shaped and each factor was derived from the cultural elements of this era. Art in each historical era is fully under the influence of the culture and this fact is undeniable. Cultural atmosphere of the first Pahlavi era was fully under the influence of western Modernism; So, any artistic updates which occurred in this era was under the influence of this factor. Reza shah wanted to build a modern country as a result any type of art produced in this country should have become updated with some new elements which should be added by the artists. In Iranian Paintings, the first on who did this job in first Pahlavi era was Hadi Tajvidi and we can say that he was the founder of this type of Iranian Paintings. But unfortunately, he died soon and his students became the followers of his painting style. They did great. They became famous all over the world, specially in the second Pahlavi era. Via their artistic works, foreigners became interested in this traditional art which belongs to Iran. Iranian Paintings in the first Pahlavi era became revived and has so many fans. This fact was under the influence of cultural atmosphere shaped by Reza shah’s Government, but this couldn’t last too much cause in the second Pahlavi era the cultural elements totally changed and in the cultural sphere of that era the Iranian paintings couldn’t follow the pace of growth started in the first Pahlavi era.

Iran and India enjoy a long history of cultural interactions. Meanwhile, the migration of many Safavid artists and elites to the Mughal court, and the promotion of the Persian language in India are marked as turning points in the history of Indo-Iranian cultural relations. Iranian migrant painters had a privileged position in the Mughal court by creating many works and educating many apprentices. Considering the works of Iranian immigrant artists in the Mughal court as an intercultural text, this study has tried to examine the Mughal court painting thorough intercultural semiotics. The main purpose is to find the Mughal approach in cultural relations with Iran and to identify the limits and roles of each culture involved in these interactions. For this purpose, samples of the works of Iranian painters or projects under their supervision in the Mughal court were studied with a cultural, semiotic approach. The Mughal fascination with Iranian culture and art at the Indian court provided favorable conditions for the influence of Iranian artists, elements and compositions. Furthermore, the Mughal painting is considered much more naturalistic than its Persian counterpart.    As a result, the Mughal tried to emphasize their difference from Hindu culture, as “the other”, by idealizing Persian culture, which at that time had immense popularity and position in the Islamic world. This process did not lead to the complete absorption of Persian culture and the total rejection of Hindu culture in Mughal paintings; hence, the elements of Indian painting in Mughal art were still visible. Mughal painting is an intercultural text in which Iranian culture and consequently Mongol culture (due to its identification with Iranian culture) is centralized and the Hindu culture left to the sideline. Yet, this text reclaims its identity from the constant interchange of the center’s and margin’s borders.

The study and analysis of the Great Mongol Shahnama and Jami al-Tavarikh paintings has often been done with emphasis on related texts and narrations. In most of the studies and researches conducted in this field, researchers, both domestic and foreign, have paid less attention to the signs outside the narration of Shahnama and Jami al-Tavarikh. However, it seems that the signs in the text of Ferdowsichr('39')s Shahnama and Jami al-Tavarikh are very different from the visual signs of the Great Mongol Shahnama and Illustrated version of Jami al-Tavarikh according to many cases. While the Ferdowsichr('39')s Shahnama has a literary context with axial attention to the lyricism that appeared in the Iranian pretext, Jami al-Tavarikh is basically a historic source in which the pictorial language of the Ilkhanid context remained the main focus of attention. The discourse has been formed around the presence of the Mongols in Iran as a larger semiosphere, two other semiospheres, namely the Iranian semiosphere and the Turkish-Mongol semiosphere, are placed inside it. Therefore, it is thought that if the reading of the paintings of the Great Mongol Shahnama and Jami al- Tavarikh is based on the semiosphere of «Ilkhani Painting». When analyzing the visual signs, we noticed that signs outside the narrative of Ferdowsi (Iranian semiosphere) and the narrative of Jami al- Tavarikh (Ilkhani semiosphere), means that the mythical signs and Shamanistic beliefs relate to the Turkish-Mongol culture (Turkish-Mongol semiosphere). In this case, perhaps very valuable and thought-provoking results will be available to researchers and audiences in the field of Ilkhanid painting (Miniature) and so new perspectives for future researchers emerge. It is quite possible to pinpoint an Ilkhanid background to both the Demotte Shahnama and Jami al-Tavarikh. A fresh look at the Great Mongol Shahnamachr('39')s book paintings is essentially based on the semiosphere approach in a way that epic narrations from the general texts of Shahnama and Jami al-Tavarikh have been considered as a non-text and filtered through the Turco-Mongol culture in an implicit way or even accepted an explicit transsemiotic mechanism and introduced in a completely varied pictorial language as a result of trans-continental influence. The aim is to study those codes related to the "Mountain" in the two stunning book paintings from the Demotte Shahnama and Jami al-Tavarikh that are entered into the realm of the Ilkhanid semiosphere through the trans-continental cultural translation.This research has been done in a descriptive-analytical way and it uses library studies. The aim of this study is fundamental and uses the methodology of semiotics and the cultural semiotics approach of Yuri Lutman. The main findings of the present study indicate that there are significant signs about the “Mountain” in the paintings of the Great Mongol Shahnama and the Jami al- Tavarikh which are related to the mythological concepts of Turkish-Mongolian culture; This results clearly suggest that the "Mountain" in the above-mentioned book paintings. Moreover, it is strongly related to the Turko-Mongol mythical attitudes and symbolically represents various concepts such as the herochr('39')s shelter, the main source of creation and fertility, the burial location of political and religious elite, the place where Tengeri is accessible to communicate, and the connection corridor to reach the other world.

Qajar painting influenced Iran’s painting with a new kind of illustrations originating from the past traditions. Art and cultural politics of Fath Ali Shah performs an obvious role amongst the influential agents and historical events in the era of Qajar paintings for a presentation of the concepts of power in the social, political and cultural arena. Fath Ali Shah’s patronage of the art alters painting’s direction as Iran’s painting moves to a new field of pictorial history. Thus the portrait and figure get special significance in the painting this period as respects the themes of painting have changed via the penetration and impression of the western art and culture, and the noblemen take possession of that to be part of their belongings. Its climax is clearly seen in the court noblemen portraits and figures that has originated from amalgamation and mergence of western and Iranian traditions .Those are portraits and figures that are for the peerage men, kings, princes, dignitaries and the king’s courtiers and attendants. To show women’s portrait starts from the Qajar dynasty, and their representation matters in this era’s pictures, and its presentation falls prey to change both in the shape and content. Women’s images were not widespread because of religious reasons and didn’t «boom» as much as men’s images. The purpose of this article is connected with cultural semiotics which analyse a woman’s portrait related to the period of Qajar paintings. And the female gaze is tantamount to the body function. This is a specific work of art because it is an image synthesized from several painting genres. This research interpreted pictorial elements in proportion together by an adaptive and analysis approach based on the shaped changes in this cultural and social period. We suppose that female gaze in this work of art, composed of several genres reflects changeable presence of the body’s action. The question is about the proportion between body and procession of the young woman’s look matching another details and elements of the image. Maybe the female gaze in this work was depicted as distinct from power of the male gaze. So this Qajar era painting provides an opportunity for different studying of this kind of pictures. Depicted portrait of the young woman contrasts with the separate images from women of this period of Qajar paintings. In conclusion should say that the representation and nature of the body was different in the images of this period. There is an exact relationship between the elements of the image, especially in case of the womanchr('39')s body that reflects a dominant female gaze. She was a court woman that has stood in the middle of the tradition and modernity. She shows the cultural tension of the Qajar era. Her female gaze predominated not only on the audience but also on all that by its proportion to other elements. There is a structural and formal relation between elements that demonstrates physical presence of her body and a different look.

In the view of a wider audience, the interpre tations of book paintings from the Demmote Shahnama have never been the subject of detailed semiotic studies. While Ferdowsi’s Shahnama is a literary context with axial at tention to the lyricism that appeared in the Iranian pretext, Jami al-Tavarikh is basically a historic source in which the pictorial language of the Ilkhanid context remained the main fo cus of attention. It is quite possible to pinpoint an Ilkhanid background to both the Demotte Shahnama and Jami al-Tavarikh. A fresh look at the Great Mongol Shahnama’s book paint ings is essential based on the semiosphere ap proach in a way that epic narrations from the general texts of Shahnama and Jami al-Tav arikh have been considered as a non-text and filtered through the Turco-Mongol culture in an implicit way or even accepted an explicit transsemiotic mechanism and introduced in a completely various pictorial language as a result of trans-continental influence. The aim is to study those codes related to the “Tree” in the two stunning book paintings from the De motte Shahnama and Jami al-Tavarikh that are entered into the realm of the Ilkhanid semio sphere through the trans-continental cultural translation. This paper is a basic one that rests on descrip tive-analytical methodology and the cultural semiotic approach developed by Yuri Lutman. What results clearly suggest is the significant concept of tree in Turco-Mongol myths in cluding the power of generation and creation, the source of invincibility for heroes, protec tion and security for both country and the king himself, a passage to enter the after here, the holy presence in royal ceremonies as well as a sacred location indicating the place of the Sahmans and Khans tombs.

The s tudy and analysis of the paintings of the Great Mongol Shahnama has often been done with emphasis on the literary text of the Shahnameh and related narratives.In mos t of the s tudies and researches conducted in this field,researchers, both domes tic and foreign,have paid less attention to the signs outside the narration of Shahnama However, it seems that the signs in the literary text of Ferdowsi’s Shahnama are very different from the visual signs the Great Mongol Shahnama in many cases.Because the text of Ferdowsi’s Shahnama is a text belonging to the Iranian discourse and focusing on poetic language but the Great Mongol Shahnama is a text centered on visual language and belongs to the Mongol discourse,the discourse that has been formed with the presence of the Mongols in Iran And as a larger semiosphere, two other semiosphere, namely the Iranian semiosphere and the Turkish-Mongol semiosphere,are placed inside it.Therefore, it is thought that if the reading of the paintings of the Great Mongol Shahnama is based on the semiosphere of “Ilkhani Painting” And in analyzing the visual signs,pay attention to the signs outside the narrative of Ferdowsi (Iranian semiosphere),means that the mythical signs and Shamanis tic beliefs related to the Turkish-Mongol culture (Turkish-Mongol semiosphere); In this case, perhaps very valuable and thought-provoking results will be available to researchers and audiences in the field of Ilkhanid painting(Miniature) and so new perspectives for future researchers emerge. In this research,it is assumed that the bigges t and original semiosphere (Ilkhanid painting), the narrations of Shahnama as “non- texts” are in the “text” of the image with two ways: 1. it has taken the narration directly from the Iranian semiosphere (Ferdowsi’s Shahnama) and with the mechanism of intermediate translation, it has entered the images of Ilkhani’s Shahnama. 2.The painter has indirectly incorporated the narratives of Ferdowsi’s Shahnama into the pictorial signs of the Great Mongol Shahnama by passing them through the filter of Turkish-Mongolian culture and by the mechanism of interdisciplinary translation.The purpose of this s tudy is to show the relationship between “Yugh” ceremony – the funeral cus toms of Turks and Mongols in conveying heroes and famous leaders - with funeral cus toms pictures in the Great Mongol Shahnama.This research has been done in a descriptive-analytical way. And it uses library s tudies.The aim of this s tudy is fundamental and uses the methodology of semiotics and the cultural semiotics approach of Yuri Lutman.The main findings of the present s tudy indicate that there are significant indications of the Yugh ceremony as well as the Yuğçus - special performers of the Yugh ceremony - in the four the funeral cus toms pictures of the Great Mongol Shahnama.Thus,in one of the paintings, the exis tence of two different and dis tinct groups reminds of the possibility of the connection between the two groups with two different happy and sad parts of the “Yugh” ceremony.these two gropus are: People carrying musical ins truments and Crying people.And the exis tence of only one group of “crying and wailing people” in the other three paintings sugges ts the possibility of a connection with the second and sad part of the Yugh ceremony.

During the turbulent period of forming political, social, and historical revolutions in the face of western art and culture, Qajar painting goes through old and new elements, and settles in a wide range of challenging and new concepts. One of these concepts is the functioning of the body which acts as a powerful semiotic system in Qajar painting and in the direction of producing meaning, in dealing with "non-culture". Non-culture is one of the basic and practical terms in Yuri Lutman's cultural semiotic approach, which is opposed to culture. For Lutman, the most central concept is the semiosphere with the dual space: in such a way that the meaning is produced from the opposition of the dual concepts in this space. Therefore, this research aims to examine and compare the type of function and position of Fath-Ali Shah and Naser al-Din Shah's bodies in opposition to "Non-culture", with the purpose of using "body-signs" in Lutman's cultural semiotics approach. The purpose of this study is explaining how both kings' bodies are portrayed as their own bodies in the culture, in the face of another body within the "non-culture". This study is carried out through comparative-analytical method. The result of the analysis indicates that the cultural bodies of both kings in the discourse system of semiospheres in the face of "non-culture" have unequal status towards each other. The image of Naser al-Din Shah is constantly appearing towards another body within "non-culture", and in the dialectic of his own body/ another body, is considered as "close-body", despite Fath-Ali Shah who avoids it. As a result, with the influence of "non-culture", the image of Naser al-Din Shah is more exposed to change and transformation than Fath-Ali Shah, and the cultural body of king gradually fades.

The relationship between a written text and a cinematic script is based on their inter-</span>lingual translation. </span>Written signs change to visual ones and some changes occur along the way: changes which can be studied and researched from both aesthetics and interdisciplinary points of view. </span>The theories of Yuri Lotman and his fellows’ </span>in cultural semiotics of the Tartu- </span>Moscow School provide a basis for such interdisciplinary studies. </span>They believed that a part of meaning production is formed amid “</span>the contrast between nature and culture”. </span>The perspective assumes culture as the sign of calm and nature as the sign of chaos. </span>Based on this theory a dialectics is developed between meaning-</span>making systems in art criticism and cultural systems. </span>Paying attention to this, </span>the present paper tries to re-</span>read culture and nature in cultural semiotics and explore the potentials of this topic for studying cultural translation (</span>adaptation) </span>of cinematic works, </span>seeking its patterns. </span>This is followed by a reading from Tennessee Williams’</span>s play A Streetcar Named Desire based on Tartu-</span>Moscow cultural school in which the contrast between culture and nature is studied using a comparative approach, </span>in the plays two cinematic adaptations A Streetcar Named Desire by Elia Kazan (1951) </span>and The Stranger by Bahram Tavakkoli (2013).  </span>Using library research and descriptive-</span>comparative method, </span>the research tries to cast light on translation mechanisms of “</span>culture” </span>and “</span>nature” </span>from the original text to its adaptations, </span>and how the semiological differences of “</span>culture” </span>and “</span>nature” </span>between the original and the adaptation help in meaning making.</span></span></div>

Using semiotics as a tool for analyzing and interpreting explicit and implied implications present in the phenomena as a system of socio-cultural signs, the current research intends to decode and understand semantic concepts and metaphors in how to organize the space and main concepts constituting space and architecture of Arg of Karim Khan. Using a historical interpretation method and cultural semiotic strategies, the current research seeks to identify cultural meanings and the impacts of Zandiyeh’s life style on the monument and the matching of the unique characteristics of the monument with the themes underlying Zandiyeh tribal culture. In this regard, the current article presents some interpretations consistent with the monument which are of utmost significance in the interpretation of the architecture influenced by ethnic culture and art. The results indicate that tribal art sis capable of creating a non-representational world in which the visual reality of the phenomena is shaped independent from any representational and expressive feature. It can be said that, paying attention to this process (factors such as simplicity, not extravagant, connection with nature, euphoria and happiness, and peace) confirms the absence of any mere functional and conservative perspective in the content of art and architecture of Zandiyeh period, also specifies that “deliberative functionalism of ethnic art” as the third important theme of ethnic art after “naturalism” and “simplification resulting from abstraction of meanings” has been influential on spatial pattern and the ornamentation of Arg of Karim Khan. Other reasons include a wide variety and strong presence of the monument’s murals conveying the geometrical and abstract motifs of natural elements with the technique of implementation in the School of Shiraz.

Iranian graphic designers made their first efforts to create modern logotypes, called Sar- Onvan (Subtitle), in Qajar era. These works, which are considered as important parts of the background of Iranian graphic design, worth adequate attention; through studying them, we may discover their special visual expressions leading us to a better understanding of the specific social situation in Qajar period. The other side of this comparative research focuses on the Constitutional poetry having direct relations with the primary discourse of the time. The main objective of this study is identifying the relation between pictorial logotypes and the cultural codes in Constitutional poetry is. This comparative study is a quantitative research with an intertextual approach. The human, animal, and vegetal codes as well as those which are related to some specific places and objects have been surveyed. These logos guide viewers from direct implications to the more implicit ones. This survey discusses the key question of how the main discourse of Qajar era, hidden in Constitutional poetry, is reflected in the logotypes. The conclusions may be divided into two parts, simplified as the visual expressions and the representation of the cultural codes. The findings show that the graphic designers used traditional Persian calligraphy, but they employed some techniques to achieve new visual expressions; these methods are simplification, highlighting, exaggeration, and rearranging the letters. Although the pictorial parts of the logos have been illustrated according to the title of the newspapers, the images excel them; the illustrations occupy more space and their artistic qualities are superior. The other finding of this research shows that the archaic cultural codes were reproduced in Constitutional poetry as well as the press logos; as a part of the dominant discourse of the time, the pictorial logotypes represented new forms and concepts of the ancient cultural codes.

Cinematic superheroes can be considered as modern cultural and mythic phenomena whose multilayered characters enjoy various philosophical meanings like ancient myths. Diverse forms of superhero genre constitute a significant part of media culture and environment. The aim of this study is to answer how modern cinematic myths fulfill various ideological goals from the perspective of cultural studies. Cultural studies tries to analyze the conditions which lead to the production and determination of the role of social, economic and political forces as well as the power structures. Within cultural studies, the cultural semiotics of Roland Barthes has been used in this study due to his innovative definitions of myth. The results of this study show that the superhero, as a metaphor of real life, can simply embody countless metaphorical meanings since s/he turns the film into an arena of conflict between paradoxes, cultural meanings, social customs and political suppositions. More than consumerism, the aim of modern mythologization is to achieve a homogenous society in line with liberalist life style. Moreover, the hero-making narrative of cinema, especially Hollywood, is at the service of creating the central signifier of the American capitalist ideology which transfers the cultural concepts in accordance with current norms and regards some goals like national security, the Cold War, changing the racial and sexual stereotypes as well as environmental issues.

Art and architectural works of the Zand period are a unique collection of Iranian architecture before cultural developments of the Qajar period. According to most literatures, they have a simple-oriented structure and borrowed fields of art and ancient architecture (Achaemenid era) and some techniques of Safavid period compared to works before and after them. But the content of the art of this period has not been studied with a deeper analysis of the roots and folk art of the Zand tribe yet. This study aims at decoding and understanding the concepts and semantics metaphors and areas affected by illustrations and images of this period using attitudes and folk art themes of the Zand dynasty with a historical-cultural method and a cultural semiotic strategy as a tool for analysis and interpretation of the affirmative and implicit implications of the phenomena as a system of socio-cultural implication. The results show that tribal art has some degree of creating a non-representational world in which another visual reality independent of any representational and expressive character is raised. Considering this process (items such as simplicity, freestanding, connection with nature, joy, happiness and peace) approves the absence of any absolute functional and conservative look, at the content of art and architecture of the Zand period and clarifies that "Deliberative Functionalism of Ethnic Art" has been effective as the third important theme of folk art in graffiti and internal and external decorations of buildings in this period after the themes: "Naturalism" and "Simplification of Abstract Concepts". Wide diversity and a strong presence of graffiti with abstract designs and abstracting of Lachak (a small scarf tied tightly to the head), bergamot and framings which are themed with realistic designs of natural elements such as plants and birds in government buildings (castle, courthouse , Haft Tanan and Kolah Farangi mansions) are the best places to publish and represent modern motifs, to emphasize on tendency to abstracted affairs in expression and the reflection of pure concepts abstracted in the nature of folk art as an indicative of the flexible spirit and adaptability of this art with the cultural context and lyrical atmosphere of Shiraz in this course.

The confrontation and communication between cultural Self and Other is one of the most critical areas of study that has been broadly investigated in Cultural Semiotics during the past decades. As cultural semiotics illustrates, cultures are the repertoire of the texts which are closely interwoven. In other words, cultures are inter-textual and texts are unique sources to comprehend diverse aspects of a culture. As a result, the present essay studies one of the distinguished Iranian plays as a text within a culture to approach the ways that Iranian culture represents itself and cultural Other. To this end, we analyze the play ‘Battle of East and West’ (jang-e mashregh va Maghreb) by Gregor Yeghikian (1880-1951) written in 1923 that attempts to display East and West as binary oppositions through the wars of Persian and Greek empires. The present essay aims at examining the confrontation between East and West as the encounter of cultural Self and Other in the play, by applying the contributions of Juri Lotman in this respect. The essential question of this study is that how Western culture as the cultural Other is understood, defined and represented in the play ‘Battle of East and West’ as a text within the cultural sphere of Iran. In other word, we try to find out if Western culture as the Other is represented as non-culture, counter-culture or extra-culture within the text. Furthermore, this essay sheds light on the self-descriptive dimensions of this play that tries to (re)define the identity of the Self.

The image of “the other” can be traced back in the history of every culture and the oppositional binary of the self/ the other (ego-alter) have always been regarded as part of cultural studies. Problems such as the relationship between cultures (one specific culture and “the other” one/s) or reason of governments’ denial of the other/s are among important questions of this field. In the present article، the cultural semiotics method has been chosen to investigate the way “the Other” is represented in two paintings belonging to two illustrated versions of Shahnameh، both from Safavid period. Based on the comparison of equall binary of the self and the other with that of human and demon in those picture، this article would try to analyse how the rejecting function of culture works in semiotic realm of image. Eventually، the results of this study indicates in oppositional binary of “the self” and “the other”، the other or demon is represented as something unnatural or uncultural and this process was used for rejecting other cultures and avoiding mixing with them.