cultural semiotics

In this article, an attempt is made to make use of the "center-margin" category in Lutman's cultural semiotics to read the films "How many cubic meters of love", "Going", "Breaking twenty bones at the same time" jointly produced by the brothers Mahmoudi (Navid and Jamshid) should take place. Many researches have been done in connection with the presence of Afghan immigrants and their settling in the outskirts of Iranian cities, but what is tangible after the passage of about forty years of their presence in Iran is their progress and the change of their cultural position and the increase of interactions with Iranian activists. An issue that has not been paid much attention to in the current research. Therefore, this article tries to improve their position in Iran's geography by using the concept of residence. In fact, the purpose of this research is to show this path with an emphasis on the settlements of the immigrants. Therefore, the research question can be posed as follows: in what order has the process of changing the cultural position of Afghan immigrants from the periphery to the center been carried out? This research indicates that the Afghan immigrants adopted the approach of "center and periphery" at the beginning of their arrival, but over time, with increasing interactions with Iran, they progressed from the periphery to the center. In this situation, the duo abandoned the "center-periphery" and occupied transcultural, countercultural and marginal cultural spaces. The signs indicate that they have not yet entered the central cultural space. The selection of these spaces and the forward movement of immigrants can be investigated through spatial signs, i.e. changes in the structure of their residences, as well as non-spatial signs such as the speech and actions of Iranians and Afghans. It should be noted that this qualitative research was conducted in the form of documents, relying on visual and written sources and written in a descriptive-analytical way.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Environmental art as an art movement that claims to present a solution to the environmental crisis and problems of the contemporary world, takes in all the external, physical, social and cultural opportunities which might affect any person or group in order to realize this idea. In other words, environmental art, which is one of the ratheryounger branches of art, tries a new approach to the human relationship with nature and explores new ways for coexistence with the environment around. By a deeper consideration into environmental art, its branches and artists, some new aspects of equally natural and cultural value will be revealed. According to the role of semiotics which has an important position in textual analysis of the contemporary culture phenomena, and on the other hand the combination of significant and insignificant world is considerable, the relationship between “culture, nature and works of environmental art” is subject to this study. And also, three works of three environmental artists are studied through a cultural semiotic approach to layers of meaning. This descriptive-analysis research is based on the view that participation of the elements of nature such as stone, wood, etc. and its temporality would make essential differences inexpression and application of the elements in works performed by these artists. Furthermore, it can be concluded that these works which are formed in the nature, become an inseparable part of the nature and human culture in different regions orcultures. Marks and signs have cultural and social connotations because they preserve ecology and human life primarily and parallel with the expression and common world cultures.

These days، the global village faces with environmental crisis. Therefore، we are living in a world with an increasing need to pay attention to the surroundings through an environmental and aesthetic lens. Meanwhile، environmental art، as a new branch of art، attempts to view the relation between human beings and nature in a new light and with the help of all surrounding situations. With a deeper look at environmental art، its branches and artists who are active in this field، some new aspects will be revealed which are natural and، at the same time، cultural because nowadays cultural oppositions are indicative of the importance of studying culture and the role of various semiotic systems in collective memory. Moreover، it implies how a work of art، as a text، signifies and creates meaning and the artist creates an active، role-playing audience from among the implicit meanings and concepts hidden in layers deep down the work. Therefore، regarding the role played by semiotics in introducing today’s cultures and world، and since there is nothing empty of sign in semiotics، and also because the mixture of sign and non-sign worlds is worth thinking، in this study cultural semiotics deals with the relation between culture، nature and environmental works of art. Furthermore، this study aims to investigate the signs and deep layers of meaning through a cultural semiotic approach in each work. This is a descriptive-analytic study on the basis of which، while viewing some common points in applying the natural elements such as stone، wood، etc. in the environmental works of art and their mortality، it is possible to explore the expressive differences and how the elements are used in the subclasses of environmental art and the works of these artists. Furthermore، it can be concluded that these works، taking shape in the environment، are inseparable part of nature and human culture in different regions or more comprehensive cultures.

Abstract This article is a comparative analysis between Shakespeare’s Othello and two persian translations of this drama by Abol Ghasem Khan Naseralmolk and M.A. Beh’aazin. The current study tries to consider problems of dramatic translation of the text. The main objective of this article is to consider the necessity of cultural semiotics in translating of dramatic texts. Although in these texts, it is impossible to separate text from performance, since theatre consists of the dialectical relationship between both of them, and also dramatic texts are not complete without performance. But the authors have tried to look at dramatic texts as independent elements. They mainly tend to find some answers to the following questions: In addition to dominance to the source language and target language, is it necessary that the translator dominate cultural semiotics? Should translator compare signs- and especially the cultural ones- meaning in the source and the target languages? Culture and cultural code have an essential role in sign decoding especially in translation process. Culture is made of various kinds of discourses as artistic, literal, politic, religious, etc. Therefore literary discourse is just one part of culture in each society. In translation, especially in literally ones, cultural code should be considered as important as metaphoric and metonymic relations and indeterminacy of signs and semantic deviation. The signs are different in each language. They are encoded by language readers and context. In literary translation, poetic sense should be conveyed as well as intended message and sign meaning. That is why some of the signs are transformed without any change, some transform according to the cultural code of target language and some disappear. Some times in this process, translator adds signs to the text. Because of different meanings of the signs, it is impossible to attain to the author’s mind. In the process of translation, the cultural differences cause to not relate with text. Besides each writer has his/her “personal accent”. It is a product of personal ideology, the period and climate, experiences and continents, cultures, observations, religions, contemporary politics and other factors. In translation the” Personal accent” of the writer is as important as the translator’s one. It is clear that Shakespeare’s “personal accent” in not exactly the same as M.A. Beh’aazin or Abol Ghasem Khan Naseralmolk’s accent. In other words Shakespeare’s cultural lung had been filled with different kind of oxygen. Such factors act as finger prints that everyone has his/her own special one. Whilst it seems that the source text and target text are equal and tantamount, translating act is a process of renovation and recreation of text. The processes of translation involved in making another culture comprehensible. There are direct relations between Languages and literary texts and culture. If there is an interconnection between language and the thought, and culture and what the writers write, understanding the culture is very essential factor. Translation of dramatic texts is formed in two steps. First the task of translator is to translate text to the target language and then the director, again, translates the text into a specific language which belongs to the stage. In this process, culture and cultural semiotics have important roles

Having a more extensive view of translation as an intersemiotic, intertextual, and intercultural practice, the present paper studies film adaptation – a kind ofintersemiotic translation – of Iranian screenplay and film -‘Canaan’- from aCanadian short story -‘Post and Beam’. In fact, based on the intertextualitytheory and its expansion using the approaches of cultural semiotics and intersemiotic translation, it seeks to examine how the Canadian short story passes from one sign system to another one, and from the other culture to the self culture, and how it is represented in the stratificational and multimedia structure of cinema. By examining the intertextual relations between the Canadian short story(as prototext) and its corresponding Iranian adapted screenplay and film (as metatexts), it is found that the filmmaker/adapter repeats some universally unmarked events or actions of the prototext but transforms and appropriates them both at the story and cultural levels, and creates some other parts which are divided into universally unmarked, culturally marked, and sign function creations. Finally, the results indicate that film adaptation is a transformational creative process in which there is no absolute repeatition since culturally marked and universally unmarked repeatitions with transformations in a hierarchical order of markedness affect the intertextual relations in the process of film adaptation and break their dichotomous nature of repetition and creation.

Kashan Historical Houses are unique complexes of Iranian historical architecture. The aim of this essay is to study these houses (Ameris, Tabatabaees, Borujerdees, and Abasis) from a semiotic (structuralist, cultural and poststructuralist) approach. The representation of cultural aspects (such as privacy, security, power, status, and respect) in the light of “introverted” and “veiled” architecture is the focus of this study. In the second part of the essay, I will pay attention to two major binary oppositions in semiotics: inside and outside, and culture and nature. The theses proposed for both binary oppositions could be considered as new in many respects and will result in some poststructuralist or deconstructive readings of these historical houses and some observations on the concept of “home”. All the pictures used for this research are taken by the researcher.