A Discourse Analysis of the Iran-Iraq War Posters According to Van Dijk’s Ideological Square: a Case Study of the Posters on Resistance

The posters of the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq – also known as the posters of the Holy Defense – have been published by their designers on various topics, and resistance is one of such topics. The works have been investigated and analyzed from various perspectives so far. As they contained ideological content, the present study aimed to compare the posters on resistance with the four sides of Van Dijk’s ideological square. The study aimed to understand Iranian visual culture during the holy defense according to the atmosphere of the time and Van Dijk’s ideological square. Thus, the following questions were asked in the study: “What are the common grounds of the majority of resistance posters with the sides of Van Dijk’s ideological square?”, “What was the most prevalent side of Van Dijk’s model in relation to the investigated works?” and “How – and based on what semantic implication – were the common grounds illustrated?” Authors in a study titled “The Role of Religious Beliefs during the Holy Defense” stated that concepts like resistance against the enemy and not fearing it, endurance and bravery, attacking the enemy, enduring hardships, self-sacrifice, and preferring the interests of the public to personal interests were described in the posters in the best way possible. Moreover, in another study titled “An Investigation of the Symbolism of the Posters of the Holy Defense” it is argued that the work had been formed in spiritual content and in a thoroughly realistic atmosphere with a skillful illustration of symbolic and cliché elements, super-humans, calm and extraterrestrial atmospheres, and ideal goals. A study titled “A Comparative Investigation of the Elements of the Posters of the Iran-Iraq War and the World War II in Poland” argues that the designers of the posters in each country employed visual, written, and spoken elements that originated from the culture, civilization, customs, rituals, and beliefs of that country, while a study titled “A Semiotic Investigation of Form and Content in the Posters of the Holy Defense” argues that the majority of the works employed metaphorical and visual forms to illustrate the forms and concepts of the holy defense, and the dominant concept was implied using indexical elements. In a study titled “A comparison between the symbols and signs of the holy defense in the visual arts and Architecture of the Holy Defense”, it is argued that despite the lack of any overlap between the symbols of architecture and visual arts, there were many common grounds between them.

The presented study implemented the qualitative methodology based on performing a discourse analysis based on semiotics and the investigation of the artworks of the time, using library resources and databases. The results were obtained by reading the works, observing visual sources, and analyzing and interpreting them. Semiotics decodes meanings or messages, and its major task is to study the system of communication signs employed by humans – including mathematical, visual, or graphic signs. Moreover, it can be investigated in terms of the system dominating the signs, the meanings of the signs, and their relationships with each other. A part of semiotics deals with analyzing the content of images or texts. The present study focused on the semiotics of visual meanings to compare them with Van Dijk’s theory. The seven works investigated in the study were selected from a book titled “Ten Years with the Graphic Designers of the Islamic Revolution” with a focus on the topic of resistance. As the book contained just 7 works dealing with the topic of resistance, the selection of the samples to identify the symbolic elements of resistance was purposive. Though other works of the book originated from the same intellectual foundations, they had varying titles and lacked thematic consistency. The findings of the present study were obtained by analyzing and interpreting the semiotic characteristics of the works and comparing them with the sides of Van Dijk’s ideological square based on symbols, colors, forms, compositions, and the topic of resistance.

If Van Dijk’s square, whose general output is intended to illustrate competitors in a ruthless manner, is believed to be a negative feature for ideological media, the findings of the present study showed that such a negative element was insignificant in the investigated works. In other words, it was shown that the works illustrated a fair image of the enemy that did not spare any violent actions against the resistance forces. Refraining from belittling the human forces of the enemy, illustrating them minimally in the background, the collapse of the non-human symbols or elements like stars and signs, and minimal reference to the human elements of the enemy were proofs in this regard. In terms of the sides of Van Dijk’s square, the majority of the works focused on strengthening one’s own positive elements with typically well-defined implications and moving one’s negative elements to the periphery. Thus, it can be concluded that the graphic designers of the works followed religious-based ethical and ideological values even during the heated days of the war.