The role of imagination in Iranian literature and painting with emphasis on Metaphor; An interdisciplinary study

The inner connection of Persian poetry and literature with painting, which shows commonality in imagination and images, has caused these two domains to have deep attachment and provide a common language and expression to describe forms and meanings of the imaginary world. Iranian poets and painters have used special verbal and visual tools to convey these forms and meanings. This article, with emphasis on metaphor, discusses its role and expressive ability in poetry and painting. In the process, the paper seeks to answer: 1- What are the expressive effects of metaphor in Iranian poetry and painting? 2- How have painters used the capacity of metaphor in their visual expression? The purpose of this article is to study the relationship between the two cultural domains of Iran i.e. poetry and painting, and explain their commonalities, that is, in the world of imagination and images. Another purpose is to identify the type of metaphors and their visual kinds in paintings. This is a descriptive-analytical research in which data have been collected through library and documentation centers. The data indicate that metaphor used in Persian poetry in the form of words and sentences explicitly and implicitly transferred to Iranian painting. In other words, painters expressed these metaphors visually in the form of shapes, colors and textures and thus introduced a new visual identity to express themes.