discourse analysis

Problem statement: 

Persian painting (Miniature) is one of the rich sources of Iranian art and Islamic civilization, with the Safavid period being the most brilliant era in Islamic art. Studying the works of this period is important for recognizing cultural and identity background of Iran and its influences on Islamic art. The “Haft Awrang “ by Ibrahim Mirza, known as Jami Freer, is the last outstanding illustrated manuscript (muraqqa) with royal standards, created under the patronage of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza during the Safavid priod. This manuscript was created amidst political and social changes during the reign of Shah Tahmasp and limitations imposed on the support of art and artists. It seems to have been created in a free region, away from the prevailing transformations and ideologies of its time.

This research, through a historical and discursive perspective and by study the contextual and social-cultural factors, aims to investigate the factors influencing the formation of Ibrahim Mirza’s “ Haft Awrang “ manuscript based on the discourse analysis approach within the theoretical framework of Norman Fairclough in three levels: description, interpretation, and explanation and is developmental in objective.

This research is descriptive-historical-analytical in terms of purposes, relying on historical review and information obtained from the social and political contexts of the time when Ibrahim Mirza’s manuscript was formed. The research method of analysis is qualitative.

By historically examining the contextual and social factors in the formation of the manuscript and analyzing them within Norman Fairclough’s framework, it was found that Ibrahim Mirza, due to his political position, royal relations, and different worldview, played a central role in the creation of this work. Additionally, the political and religious changes in the Safavid ruling power influenced the themes, images, and content of the manuscript, resulting in an artistic work with distinct characteristics compared to its time.

The current research aims to "analyze the discourse of cultural constructivism in Tahmasbi’s Falnama (dispersed and Dresden version) based on the perspectives of Laclau and Mouffe." It seeks to answer the following questions: How has the cultural discourse governing the art of the Safavid period taken shape, and what meanings has it solidified? What themes have been represented in the illustrations of Tahmasbi’s Falnama as a result of the dominant discourse governing society and culture during the Safavid period?The research follows a descriptive-analytical methodology with a qualitative approach. After reviewing the literature to understand the discourse and its elements the types and features of cultural constructivist discourse in Tahmasbi's Falnama are elucidated. By observing the effects and categorizing 28 illustrations from of Tahmasbi’sFalnama. The research systematically explores images with themes aligned with the dominant discourse of Safavid society. Subsequently, a new interpretation of selected illustrations is presented based on the theories of Laclau and Mouffe within the framework of cultural constructivism.The results indicate that the cultural discourse of the Safavid period revolves around the elements of Shiism, guardianship, and the awaited savior, successfully intertwining the discourse of the ruling authority with Shia guardianship and Iranian nationalism, creating a hegemony. This cultural and ideological hegemony facilitates the preservation of the ruling class's control over society through social control. Consequently, in the illustrations of Tahmasbi’s Falnama depicted during this period, the meanings of the dominant discourse are reproduced, reflecting the power relations governing the culture of society and cultural constructivism.

Since the arrival of the photography industry in Iran, this technique has become one of the most important platforms for conveying meaning to the audience. The widespread use of photos in administrative affairs in society and people's interest in recording personal moments has led to the expansion of personal photography over the course of 180 years. Every picture is a text and you can use text criticism techniques for it and examine it Inter-textually with other texts. The photo is not neutral and has meaning. By analyzing the discourse, it is possible to read and reveal the obvious and hidden meanings of the photo, as well as the ideology hidden in it, and the reproduction of the discourse in the photo, especially social and family photos. The hermeneutics of text criticism can also be used in the interpretation of the photo. In this research, the analytical aspects of personal photos and personal memorabilia in recent decades have been discussed from the perspective of history, de-familiarization and discourse analysis.

The problem of the research is to investigate how the hidden historical elements, discourse and ideology are revealed in the photographs, and used de-familiarization and analysis of the discourse for photo analysis. An attempt has been made to investigate how personal and family photos can be a platform for analyzing the history and time of photos and how to look beyond seeing a personal photo and compare it in historical and literary inter-textually and discourse analysis, historical elements. He recovered that period and revealed the hidden discourse and ideas in the photo, and then analyzed the content and discourse according to the historical context and documents.Research

In this research, a number of personnel and personal photos in the contemporary period were examined with the method of qualitative and documentary research after using de-familiarization and Fairclough's discourse analysis method.

The results of the research showed that elements of people's photos that were mentioned about personal photos (clothing, make-up, etc.) can also be used to extract the history of memorial and family photos. De-familiarization methods in photographic images (especially advertising and industrial photography) include the following: a) Shifting b) Reversal c) exaggeration and highlighting d) Composition e) Using visual Figures such as allusion, paradox, metaphor, and symbol. With the following assumptions, one should analyze the discourse of the photo and look at the photo and the photographer: 1- The attitude of the audience and the viewer of the photo depends on his life in the world. 2- The dimensions of photo analysis are layered 3- The whole picture should be seen as a meaningful whole, which meaning is transferred to the picture either from inside the picture or outside it or both. 4- Sources of power (cultural, social, political, etc.) arising from the subjects of the photo or the context of the photo, or the environment of the photo can be traced in the images. 5-No photo is neutral. 6- Worldview, ideology and photographer's work (photographer's signature) can be recognized in most cases in the photo openly or secretly. Today, the majority of people in society are busy taking photos of themselves; others, and the surrounding environment with their smartphone cameras, or watching the photographed images, but these photos can be used to understand the time and its discourses. Each photo carries its meaning to the present and the future and reflects a discourse. De-familiarization of the photograph of Nader Shah's tomb in this research with the method of suspending familiar concepts made the concepts hidden in the photograph such as the rise and fall of Farah Izadi to be investigated and revealed. by analyzing the formal elements of the photo subjects, it is possible to analyze the historical period of the photo and analyze the physical elements around the subject to the environmental changes during the period and analyze the discourse of the form and content of personal and family photos to the ideology and hidden discourse in the context and Photo time achieved. In fact, every photo is a historical text that can be read and reviewed by going to its hidden layers. Norman Fairclough uses three levels in discourse analysis: description, interpretation, and explanation. The level of interpretation includes the processes that cause the production and consumption of images. In this section, interpretive hermeneutics can also be used. However, the level of explanation is the discourse meaning and the social context that creates the image and reproduces it. In the photo analyzed in this research to analyze the discourse (Soldier and his brother) at the level of interpretation of the concepts of inter-textually and hermeneutics, it can be seen that it marks the beginning of the modern period in Iran's administrative history, but intergenerational support and love has also continued. At the explanatory level, the photo of the soldier and his brother reveals the discourse of compulsory service and its reproduction.

Problem statement: 

This study asserts that verbal texts (along with images and drawings) are used to introduce design products, including the introduction of award-winning works in architectural competitions. These verbal texts create a simultaneous perception of the problem and the design solution in the minds of the audience. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the question of what mindset or discourse the texts attached to the award-winning projects of architectural design competitions, such as the Memar Award, create regarding the structure of the problem (and naturally its solution).

This study aims to analyze the discourse of texts attached to the selected projects of the Memar Award based on Lawson’s proposed model regarding the structure of design problems.

This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative content analysis to evaluate the texts introducing the residential apartment projects selected for the Memar Award from 2001 to 2018. For this purpose, the texts introducing 25 selected projects in this category were coded and analyzed.

The study findings indicate that the texts of these projects emphasize highlighting the designer, internal constraints, and formal functions while marginalizing other components of the problem. In other words, the discourse of the texts of these projects emphasizes a singular, individual, and formal perspective on the issue of housing design, distancing itself from a participatory, collective, and radical view. Alternatively, it can be said that this discourse emphasizes the designer’s freedom of action.

Pottery, which has a long-standing connection with the so-called "traditional" arts, has been re-read in the late Qajar and post-Qajar periods in the face of the dualities of art / industry and tradition / modernity. Contemporary in this period of Iranian history. In particular, the social and cultural contexts of this confrontation will be important in this regard and in order to study the discourse developments of contemporary pottery, the following questions are raised: What is the meaning of "contemporary" pottery? What are the influential discourses on "contemporary pottery"? What works did Iranian pottery artists create under "being contemporary"? The present study is based on the critical discourse analysis approach and the Laclau and Moff method. The results show that pottery artists have presented their experiences under the concept of being contemporary in the context of three influential discourses on contemporary pottery. These discourses, which themselves have had different reactions to the tradition, have led to the formation and, somewhere, support for various types of pottery in the context of the hundred-year-old developments in Iranian history. Among them, we can mention the discourse of "heritage and preservation of tradition", which in the first and second Pahlavi period with the central sign of "originality" emphasized the significance, continuity and continuity of national culture and by articulating the signs of local and indigenous Iranian culture, folk art and Historical and Ancient Traditions and Emphasis on the Creation of Historical Monuments He considered tradition as a source of identity construction and historical storage of national identity, and with the support of local and rural pottery, introduced it as a national art. Pottery continued in the discourse of heritage in the years after the revolution and was considered as a part of heritage arts with traditional meanings following its applications. Also, the discourse of "modernism and neocentrism", which was formed in the second Pahlavi period and after the revolution with the central sign of connection and combination of tradition and modernity, with emphasis on harmonizing, connecting and accompanying the signs of traditional and religious culture with the signs and formalism of modern art. It provided the basis for the creation of works with political and social functions. The discourse of "contemporaneity and deconstruction of tradition" in the 1380s and 1390s, by inverting and dismantling the system of signs of tradition, provided the conditions for the entry of pottery into the field of trans-media media. . Thus, the works presented in this discourse, by adopting a postmodernist approach to tradition, sought to disguise the hidden decentralization in traditionalism and to dismantle traditional political systems and culture in order to expose the ideological functions of tradition in the new age. The platform for presenting works of this type has been national exhibitions and biennials of pottery.

The movie poster is a visual tool that can play an important role in attracting the audience and persuading them to watch the movie. An evaluation of movie posters can be implemented in different ways. Kress and Van Leeuwen 's visual grammar is one of the appropriate frameworks for purpose of evaluation. This framework examines images from the following perspectives: representational meaning, interactive meaning, and compositional meaning. Analyzing and understanding the meaning in multimodal texts 6can be useful in evaluating the success or failure of this tool in transmitting information in a movie poster.

This method has not been used for analysis of Iranian film posters. There are some related forein articles to this work as below.María Martínez Lirola (2016) in "Multimodal analysis of a sample of political posters in Ireland during and after the Celtic Tiger" analyzed political posters based on Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar . The study pointed out that the poster is a powerful tool that can be used in election campaigns to highlight the power of political parties.  In another study, Menguyan Bi (2019) in "Multimodal Discourse Analysis of News Pictures" took the visual grammar as the theoretical framework and said that it has a good explanation of meaning. The results showed that visual grammar is feasible and operational in the analysis of multimodal news texts. Huafang Hu (2019) in a study entitled "A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Movie Posters Based on Visual Grammar" conducted a multimodal analysis of the movie poster Youth and cited that analysis and interpretation of the composition of multimodal meaning of the movie poster not only help the readers deeply understand the connotation of the movie, but also help readers improve their cognition of multimodal discourse. In another study in 2020, Saputra and Rosa used multimodal analysis in Man of Steel and Avengers Infinity Wars movie posters. The researchers found 6 types of elements of multimodal in Man of Steel and Avengers Infinity Wars posters such as material, behavioral, mental, identifying, attributive, and intensive. Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh (2021) in "A MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ROMANTIC COMEDY MOVIE POSTERS" concluded the theoretical framework, Visual Grammar, with its well-structured system, provides a powerful tool to break visual images into different elements and construe their meanings. Ghaleb Rabab'ah (2021) in "A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of English Posters in Violence Awareness Campaigns against Women" said that the qualitative analysis of the yielded results was couched with Kress and Van Leeuwen’s framework and indicated that English posters employed a variety of semiotic modes. By the same token, the yielded results indicated that the majority of the sampled posters are conceptual. Such visual characterization demonstrates that the English posters tend to be static and immovable. Wenbo Zhao (2021) in "Multimodal Visual Grammar Analysis of Chinese Martial Arts Movie Posters" applied visual grammar to analyze the poster of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the results pointed out that through the observation of the compositional meaning in the case, the characters or main images are placed in the central position of the visual space to attract the attention of the audience to the greatest extent, so as to achieve its specific visual communication and marketing purposes. Zhuyan Peng (2022) in "A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Movie Posters from the Perspective of Visual Grammar — A Case Study of "Hi, Mom"" said that as a common multimodal expression mode in the film propaganda, it is important to analyze and study the posters from the visual grammar theory.  Qianru Qiu, Xueting Wang and Mayu Otani (2023) in "Multimodal Color Recommendation in Vector Graphic Documents" said Color selection plays a critical role in graphic document design and requires sufficient consideration of various contexts. Pengfei Zhang (2022) in "Visual Grammar in Multimodal Discourse: A Case Study of Nezha's Poster Images" concluded that a comprehensive analysis of visual grammar in multimodal discourse can not only foster a more profound understanding of the themes and connotations of Nezha's posters, but also signal an aesthetic evolution under changing times, thereby providing inspiration for contemporary poster designs and cultural transmissions.Purpose and question of the research: The question of the current study is how visual grammar occurs in posters. The purpose of this research is to examine each of the three meanings of the visual grammar point of view in the formation of meaning.

The method of this research is descriptive and the study sample is the poster of Kupal and Each of the three dimensions of visual grammar are studied on this poster. 

The findings of the present research show that although the cultural and social context can lead to different interpretations in the analysis of meaning, , it is possible to have a correct interpretation of meaning by paying attention to both fixed principles and contextual aspects. In the Kupal movie poster, from the point of view of the meaning of representation, the movement vectors are moving from the eyes of the participant in the image to the audience. Also, the participant shows the state of demand, personal, involvement and equality from the point of view of interactive meaning. Due to the centrality of the image and information, the accuracy of the information on the right and left side of the image is equal, and the short sentence above has the most importance, followed by the participant's image, the English title of the film, the director's name, and finally other casts are placed in lower degrees of importance.

Digital fabrication is not only a field based on technical knowledge, but it can also be examined from the perspective of epistemological foundations. Unlike the results of technical research, which provide solutions to solve problems of architectural construction, the epistemic foundations of this field by directing the discourse of digital fabrication directly affect the architectural construction and its result. Thus, it is necessary to determine its position in relation to architecture. In response to the question "what is the position of digital fabrication in relation to architectural construction?" this research, in a framework based on the critical analysis of digital discourse by examining the underlying assumptions, will attempt to present images of the position of this discourse in relation to architecture at two levels of superstructure and infrastructure. The first part of this paper analyzes these texts in two ways, content and structure, by limiting the field of discourse superstructure to the books available to the readers. The results of the content analysis define a framework consisting of elements such as form, material, strategy, technique, and tools, which guides reader understanding of digital fabrication. The results of the structural analysis show that reflecting the framework provided by the discourse at the level of these texts, it is possible to construct anything in this field, including architecture. This finding places digital fabrication as an independent field, with its own framework, in a free relationship with architectural construction, which indicates the media role of discourse. The second part, at the infrastructural level, critically examines the digital history in architecture, through the theories of Mario Carpo. This critical reading separates two key dates: first, the history of the digital revolution in architecture, and second, the history of the formation of the digital discourse in architecture, which shows the moment of the formation of the digital discourse in relation to the postmodern theories of architecture such as formalism and deconstruction. Such a result suggests that digital fabrication is dependent on architectural construction and following its theories, which indicates the instrumental role of this discourse in architecture. Finally, the comparative analysis of these results will determine that digital fabrication has a relationship with architectural construction in two places. First, digital fabrication is a field with an independent subject in which anything can be constructed, including architecture, and it determines what architectural construction is and how its issues should be. Second, this field is not an independent subject of architecture, but a field that derived from architectural theories, which solves the problems related to the construction of architecture. The separation of these two positions through the distinction between media and tool foundations in architecture defines a field for construction research whose problems are derived from architectural theories and the answer to them develops digital fabrication with architecture. On the contrary, the confusion of the two leads to a field whose problems are determined by digital fabrication, and solving those problems develops digital fabrication by taking architecture out of its theoretical framework. Between these two seemingly similar actions, there is a gap as big as an epistemological difference that needs to be taken into account.

In contemporary times, many artworks from the Qajar era are being regenerated in various art fields, including carpet weaving. The carpet of Mashahir (the figure of famous people) woven in the Milani factory is another example of artwork from the Qajar era, which was designed and woven again by Mousavi Sirat after the Islamic Revolution of Iran. Considering the changes in the reproduction of the carpet and pointing to the research objectives, which deal with the differences between the two carpets according to the common signs and discourse of each time, this study aims to: 1. address the possible differences and similarities between these two carpets, and 2. evaluate the influence of different signs and textures in these carpets on the interpretation of the carpet in two different discourses. This study is a descriptive-analytical and comparative research method based on library data. The research findings indicate that the signs and symbols used in the carpet of the Milani factory represent the identity of individuals, and they are considered the main elements of the artwork rather than merely decoration items. In the contemporary era, it is difficult to identify famous figures if these symbols are removed or replaced. Given that the carpet of the Milani factory was created with respect to political-cultural considerations, the identification of each figure in the carpet is of great importance. In addition, to accurately represent the physical characteristics of people, some symbols have been used to introduce them better. In the contemporary carpet, it seems that according to the discourse of neo-Qajarism, the aim of weaving the second work was to regenerate merely a work of the Qajar era, as targeting the identity of the individuals was not very significant.

As an art that has always served powerful kings and patrons in the pre-modern period, painting is a medium for representing phenomena influenced by dominant discourses. This art, which was popular in art workshops in different parts of the Ottoman Empire in the tenth century AH, such as Istanbul and Baghdad, was a platform for producing various literary and artistic texts with ideological functions. One of the texts created during this period in the city of Baghdad was the book "Thawāqib-i Manāqib" by Abdul Wahab Hamedani. This article considered a unique feature, which is presenting a particular image of Rumi, which is not evident in other illustrated texts. This book produced in a city that was not the capital and therefore not under the direct supervision of the court; on the other hand, it was religiously opposed to the central government; But inside it, a manuscript produced that has no royal patron and at the same time was given as a gift to the court and the king himself. These whole events bring an idea to mind that a work produced on such an occasion is about a particular subject. Probably in a confrontational or interactive action with the government and a particular discourse that should explore. For this purpose, this study analyzed the effect of dominant discourses on the depiction of Rumi's character in Thawāqib-i Manāqib. The whole study based on answering this question: 1. What is the subject of the paintings of the Thawāqib-i Manāqib manuscript, prepared in the Ottoman Baghdad school, and from what position Do they speak? And 2. how is the arrangement of visual elements, and how is the ideological message expressed in these works? The present study conducted by descriptive-analytical method, and the method of data collection was library studies. The statistical population of this research is the paintings of the Morgan Library of New York version of the book Thawāqib-i Manāqib. The paintings of this book were 29, of which 15 drawings were selected non-randomly and judiciously as study samples of the study; the criterion for selecting these samples was the active presence of Rumi in them. The information obtained in this study was analyzed based on Fairclough's theory of discourse analysis. Finally, it concluded that the position of the book's supporters and its producers and illustrators are a mediation between Shiite and Sunni discourses and the subject that the book tried to address. Rarely, Rumi's extraordinary and undeniable role in establishing interaction between the two discourses, and in this way, several visual or thematic effects are used, each of which emphasizes this mediation and its qualities somehow. In this book, the Prophet (PBUH), the Sultan, and the Caliph represent the Sunnis, and the Imams (AS) represent the Shiites, and they are depicted in different spaces next to each other artists have formed intertextual and inter-discourse spaces with different audiences. By looking at it, they find themselves in it. In these paintings, Rumi is sitting and standing with the Prophet (PBUH) as well as with the sultans and nobles; He deals with saints, he has an everyday life with ordinary people, humans and animals resort to him, he deals with natural animals and supernatural beings, he both dies and can bring the dead back to life. Slowly These mediating features have given Rumi's life and, consequently, this book an intertextual and interdisciplinary quality that is in line with a higher goal. The lofty goal of this mode of representation, as noted, is the link between the Shiite and Sunni discourses in those historical contexts. At this historical juncture, Rumi sees, as an institution that does not have enough power for absolute domination, the only way to remove division and find an ally. In the context in which Rumi is trying to establish himself, two poles have no common point other than a single origin (the Qur'an and the Prophet (PBUH)), and only by introducing a third and neutral character can one remain between them. In order to bring in a third party, no choice can be better than Rumi because in addition to establishing this relationship, it will have a more significant function, and that was to legitimize him. Finally, it can be concluded that all of these, along with the mentioned visual features, somehow carry the ideological message of Rumi's sovereignty and his rightness. The transcendental composition of the paintings, Rumi's position in each painting, the ratio of his dimensions to other people, the whole image and even the ratio of his head to the body, the use of symbolic colors such as azure, the use of special coatings appropriate to each person's social status, including visual elements some artists created clever works to emphasize Rumi's degree, his influential role in the Sufi, Shiite, and Sunni discourses, and his place with everyone.

Persian painting has been well known as a traditional art with a deep-rooted history, evolving consistently in accordance with traditions and the context of cultural changes of the society of its respective age. Therefore, compared to the previous ones, each historical period observes some modernity. As with other arts in today's Iranian society, Persian painting is not simply encountered with describing an integrated image of the sovereignty of thought; thus, with the purpose of analyzing the effects of discourse changes on creating modernity in contemporary Persian painting, the present article addresses the question that, in the context of political and social changes, what distinctive reading of modernity has emerged in contemporary Persian painting. “Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s" discourse analysis approach was used to show how some of the central signifiers are highlighted while others are marginalized in this argument; finally, discourse formulation is presented.Comparative methodology and descriptive-analytical research method were used for data collection which was implemented by examining library and field documents using fiche and imaging tool. The observed samples of contemporary Persian paintings were selected randomly from the works painted after the constitutional period (1385-1285 AH). After the Constitutional Revolution and following the political, economic, and cultural reformations that began in the late Qajar dynasty and culminated in the Pahlavi period in Iran, there was a tendency towards traditionalism and modernism. Modernizations in contemporary Persian painting can be analyzed based on four social discourses: “modern traditionalism”, “traditional modernity”, “ideological traditionalism”, and “divergence of tradition”. The results indicate that the generating forces associated with the central signifier lead to modernity in contemporary Persian painting.Persian painting in modern traditionalism discourse, beginning with the Constitutional Revolution and culminating in the first Pahlavi period and, more or less, present in both second Pahlavi and the Islamic Revolution periods, becomes hegemonic via nodal point of continuation of tradition. In this discourse, painting is reflected in the equivalence chain of historicism and nationalism and tries to hegemonize the tendency towards myth, Persian poetry and the literature of ancient Persian art by creating a chain of equivalence between the floating signifiers of historicism and archaism. Therefore, Persian painting in the ancient traditionalism discourse was engaged in competition and dispute between the naturalist method and returning to the traditional Persian painting schools. Although continuation of tradition is hegemonic in this discourse, it could achieve some innovations through using some generating forces such as court modernists (Qajar period) and the middle class as new supporters and applicants, new educational institutions, and the audience of Khayyam's quatrains. Persian painting in the discourse of traditionalist modernity was mainly formed in the first Pahlavi period with the Saqqa-Khaneh movement and in the reformation period of the Islamic Republic with post-revolutionary modernism and articulation of returning to tradition as a nodal point and elements such as decorativism, formalism, localism, and modernism. In this discourse, the art of Persian painting entered into a competition between formalism and narrativism, and finally won the battle by integrating tradition and modernism. The new middle class as well as the intellectuals of the Pahlavi government, in addition to the reformists of the Islamic Republic in 1990s, educational institutions, and art exhibitions and festivals can be considered as the most influential factors in the modernity of this discourse. In ideological traditionalism discourse, Persian painting was established by articulating the ideological reading of tradition as a nodal point and floating signifiers such as Shiite Islamism, historical Islamism, and Islamic mysticism. Moreover, here, Persian painting is identified against artistic formalism – its rival – and is located in the chain of equivalence of integrating ideological expressiveness and traditional Persian painting. Modernity in the Persian painting of this discourse can be related to the influence of revolutionary fundamentalists and art-supporting revolutionary institutions which directed national and international festivals. In the discourse of divergence of tradition, Persia painting was developed through articulating traditionalism outside of the context of tradition as the nodal point and floating signifiers such as a critical attitude towards of tradition, the heterogeneous coexistence of traditional symbols with contemporary life and multiple identities. In this discourse, Persian painting is in the chain of equivalence of challenges of traditional life in the postmodern era and traditional Persian painting is opposed to its rival, traditionalism, in form and content. Meanwhile, new artistic tools and media as well as new world markets of art, and especially the migration of artists from their homeland, are among the most important areas of modernity in Persian painting in the discourse of world art.

This article intends to research the categorization and separation of “handicraft of Iran” in relation to the “Westernism” and “Orientalism” discourses in the Qajar discursive atmosphere by discourse analysis method and answers the questions of how “Handicrafts” is categorized at this intersection in the Qajar period, and how did these applied works changed into functional objects in the service of articulating those discourses, and the subject of the “artisan artist” was emerged? The results show that in this period, during Iran’s confrontation with the West under the Westernism discourse, the hegemonic structure of the Orientalism discourse and its actors in Iran such as Murdoch Smith, the actions of Royal discourse subjects (such as Shah) and their cultural and economic decisions to move west, led to the categorization of Iran’s handicrafts based on the “material of the work”, which still dominates this field. In this discursive atmosphere, the works of handicrafts that were previously used in the context of the lives of kings, courts, religious rites and people, turned into objects with an identity function (representing Iranian identity) in the discourse of modernity -for which everything was the object of study- and they served and articulated the Orientalism discourse, and during this process, a rupture appears in the concept of the “artisan” subject and shifts to the “artisan artist” subject.

Museum narratives are ways to discover and produce meaning. The tools for producing museum narratives in museums are not only texts, but each museum action including selecting the objects as well as arranging and categorizing them, directs the visitor to move towards a different story. The present study makes a distinction between narrations and historical stories that claim to tell the “truth” about the past neutrally and without any bias. This study investigates museum narratives with a critical discourse analysis approach. According to this research, cultural documentation and production of narratives are required to be seen as one of the political methods of knowledge production and the outcome of power relations. While investigating the hidden power of narratives, the present study considers them as social constructions and the outcomes of various discourses, and investigates the challenges and opportunities of producing and reproducing museum narratives. The present essay investigates the importance of narratives in legitimizing, integrating the sensitive narratives in cultural intersection centers and the active and participatory presence of the audience in the reproduction of “democratic” narratives in the modern museums. According to the results of the present study, upon entering the marked space of the museum, the conflict on the social and individual level over the production of meanings begins, and the hegemonic narratives are a historical and cultural product and the result of the conflict between discourses and random micro and macro narratives around the museum text.The present study investigates the discursive nature of museums and museum narratives with the philosophical and theoretical assumptions of the theoretical framework of discourse analysis and reviews the challenges and opportunities of producing and reproducing narratives as a social construct and an outcome of various discourses. According to the understanding that was obtained from the common assumptions of the discourse analysis approaches, as soon as one enters the symbolic space of the museum, the conflict at the social and individual level over the production of meanings begins. Entering the discursive space of a museums is entering the conflicting field of museum discourses against each other and in the competition for the right to define the correct proposition and “truth”. Finally, hegemonic narratives, which are historical and cultural products and the results of the conflict between micro and macro narratives, give meaning to objects, categorizations, identities, etc. in a museum.In recent years, several views have been proposed about how narratives are produced in different situations. In this study, the researcher, following the related literature review of museum narratives, points out the latent power of narratives and some of the most important discourse-creating capacities of museum narratives. The present study considers the capability of narratives in four areas: legitimization, creation of coherence, cultural-intersection centers, and creation of “democratic” narratives, as decisive in favouring the modern museums.

Legitimizing Narratives:

The museums that have been inherited from the Enlightenment era have grown with the ideals of knowledge and reason. Therefore, in the first versions of museums formed in the 18th century, vast collections (royal and national collections as well as natural and geological specimens, works of art, etc.) were collected from all over the world in order to respond to “curiosities” and help studying and classifying the world. (Goswami, 2018). These documents and evidence collected by museums were grouped in line with our knowledge and perception of ourselves and the world around us and produced “knowledge”. The generated knowledge and classified information as “objective facts” have been dictated to visitors since the early 20th century in the form of educational labels, audio guides, and tours.In other words, what was conveyed to people as “reality” was actually a narrative built around a set of objects that were collected, purchased, contextualized, and displayed by people with different agendas, goals, and personal preferences. This style of narrative production and one-way communication between the museum and the visitor, in which the museum is an authentic source of knowledge and an ignorant audience who is open to receive any message, has been questioned. Greenhill introduces this style of museum narrative production as a linear process of information and does not consider it as an ideal scenario for making meaning and learning in museums (Hooper-Greenhill, 2010). In recent years, in numerous ways of producing museum narratives, the study of subjectivity has become necessary (Kidd, 2012). Narration, as Bakhtin states, is the result of the “dialogue process” between different subjects. Some narration theories are based on this idea; only part of the truth is with the narrator. At least, truth is something that is to a large extent discursively constructed (Foucault, 1980).

Coherence-Making Metanarratives:

Since the formation of the first museums, the power of nation-states has been declared through the presence and ownership of museums. Early museums were often involved in the construction of national identities and played a significant role in affirming local identity and pride (Macdonald, 2006). In the process of articulating identity in museums from the perspective of discourse analysis, identity is defined in opposition to other identities. It is in opposition to the other (cultural, historical, social, geographical, etc.) that it is determined what the subject is and what it is not. People are always called by multiple and conflicting identity discourses. Identity discourses always determine specific situations for people and call them to a specific identity (Jorgensen and Phillips, 2013). Since the identity is always organized in the form of a discourse in relation to others, sometimes in the museum, the display of the authority of one group ends up at the cost of the marginalization of another.What we observe in some museums is the involvement of a form of distortion and transformation in the creation of a museum narrative due to the complexity of some issues in museum representation, leading to the production and dominance of a comprehensive meta-narrative. The aforementioned narratives sometimes represent the world in a dangerously simplistic manner. In fact, in some museum narratives, the scattered, complex, and ambiguous nature of world events and the unpleasant stories associated with them are suppressed in favor of clarity at best, and control at worst. While according to some, creating a coherent narrative is conducted at the cost of silencing discordant voices and rejecting disputed narratives (MacLeod, Hanks, and Hale, 2012), others do believe in the unifying power of coherence-making meta-narratives.In contrast to coherence-making narratives, there are narratives that do not attempt to represent others and ignore them. Investigating museum narratives from the perspective of discourse analysis can easily represent how the museum discourse is articulated towards producing self-identity and rejecting the other. The categorization manner and competing for invitation to multiple and sometimes contradictory subject positions helps us in understanding how to articulate identity in museums. A discourse-making example of the confrontation of conflicting narratives in museums is the way macro identities are represented against the regional ones.In the historical narrative of historical museums in a traditional way, the linear approach to history is dominant. In this way, museums present a coherent narrative and an authentic mirror of history to their audience (Marstine, 2006). In this macro historical process, often dealing with the introduction and representation of prominent and significant identities, many micro and regional identities were ignored. This method of chronological representation (historical) is a characteristic of the arrangement of museum objects in many known encyclopedic museums in the world, which has often been criticized and debated. The creation of narratives that seek to communicate and hear the voices of those who have been marginalized in history has gained strength in new museology. Narration here is a kind of resistance action against the forgetting and ignoring the marginalized groups.

Narratives in cultural intersection centers:

The phenomenon of globalization has recently created conflicts, or at best, concerns for museums in multicultural societies. The increased social relations, the diversity and coexistence of different cultures, the high number of migrations and the confrontation of values have increased the need of societies to tolerate values and differences. The current cultural diversity has caused a kind of dynamic discourse in museum narratives. In today’s museums, in order to welcome more people, we need narratives that represent the inconsistencies in connecting and living with one another. For the first time, it was in the world encyclopedic museums that works from different cultures and geographies around the world were collected in. The tendency of the great and prominent museums in the world to acquire and represent the diversity of the world’s cultures brought the museums together with people from different historical, geographical, cultural and social backgrounds.On the other hand, museums as “contact zones” are a suitable platform for dialogue between cultures. By producing participatory narratives, museums change the inevitable complexity of contact zones in favor of the production of “global values”. This is why the designers of the current exhibitions try to make the narrative representations of the museums reflect the cultural diversity and “polysemy” ruling the society, along with deep investigation and research in cultural perspectives.

Democratic narratives in modern museums:

As mentioned earlier, creating a coherent narrative in museums often ends up at the cost of ignoring discordant voices and rejecting small and marginal narratives. The application of critical approaches in museum studies has brought many reactions to hearing the voices of marginalized groups in the representation of museums. In recent years, museums have accepted micro-narratives from multiple people and instead of imposing the “top-down” narrative of the exhibition organizer (curator), they have engaged in “bottom-up” interactive narratives. Perhaps we can hope that as a result of this change of approach, we will observe more diversity and democracy in the space of museums (MacLeod, Hanks, and Hale 2012).

This article uses a discourse analysis method in the Qajar discourse atmosphere, including several discourses, to identify how ‘Iranian handicrafts’ are ruptured from fine arts in relation to Qajar’s ‘royal discourse’. This study intends to answer how ‘Iranian handicrafts’ has become distinct from ‘fine arts’ and, consequently, inferior. This article has deployed method of discourse analysis from Michel Foucault’s perspective. Discourse analysis, unlike previous art historiography, does not seek to analyze continuous trends in art history. On the contrary, by rejecting historical continuity, it looks for ruptures and changes. In this method, all forms of dialogues and texts surrounding the subject are included as well as the ways texts are produced and narrated; besides, the related procedures and institutions as well as the construction of subjects are considered. The findings showed that the concept of ‘Iranian handicrafts’ in the Qajar era was constructed in a discursive atmosphere- consisting of royal discourses, modernism, Shi’ism, archaism, national identity, and constitutionalism, and so on- within dualities, the most prominent of which was ‘fine arts/ applied arts’. During this period, with Iran’s confrontation with the West and western industries, the subjects of the royal discourse (including the king, ministers, and the court) made some decisions in the fields of culture and economics which approximated the western type. Most of these decisions were directly related to handicrafts. Practical actions in these fields can be seen in Mohammad Shah's order to Abdullah Khan Memar, in the establishment of Dar al-Funoun and the school of Sanaya’ Mustazarfa as well as in the dispatching of art students to the West to promote fine arts in Iran. The consequences of such change in attitudes have been the sublimation of fine arts and the marginalization of Iranian handicrafts.

During the rule of the Ilkhanate, miniature was one of the highly valued arts to the extent that royal library-workshops were formed and precious books and texts such as Shahnameh were illustrated and illuminated a number of times. This led artists and art custodians express valuable themes and concepts through miniature. This study aimed to recognize and examine miniature and its influential elements and concepts in the Ilkhanid period in order to answer why and how different themes such as religious and ritualistic concepts have been expressed in the miniature works of the period. In this regard, texts and works remaining from the Ilkhanid period were studied and analyzed, recognizing the discourse of Iranshahri thought. The findings indicated that religious concepts in a manuscript such as the Demotte (Great Mongol) Shahnameh were traceable implicitly with regard to Iranshahri thought. This was a historical-descriptive-analytical study and the data were collected through library research.

One of the manifestations of artistic activities is the production of textiles and related accessories such as clothing and decorative fabrics and functional necessities, which have changed during different periods including Qajar. Throughout this period, vast number of arts, including textile design, has been influenced by many factors such as political and social developments. Accordingly, it seems necessary to mention that discourse approaches have transformed a lot of social structures of power. The discourse analysis approach considers the tools and functions of the power network as a method which influences the structural form of the social system using defined mechanisms. Furthermore, it enables the discovery of meaning and understanding of actions that are systematically unknown for many people. The present study seeks to find out which effects the structure of the ruling power in Qajar period had on the textiles. This research is qualitative (descriptive-analytical) and the theoretical framework of the research is based on the discourse analysis approach. In the current study, 12 samples of fabrics in museums were examined by discourse analysis method using observation tools and a purposeful sampling method. It is noteworthy that the ruling power had the most significant effect on color, material, and texture. This study examined the fabrics of Qajar period by representing these effects. Findings indicated that the military, political and social formation of the rulers of Qajar period was effective on the textiles production in this period and the system of textile production and consumption had undergone special changes following the effects of the discourse of the ruling power of the society.

This article follows the discourse systems represented in the iconography of the Qajar period Pen- Boxes, This article follows the discourse systems represented in the iconography of Qajar period pens, which follow the function of awarding a position. Therefore, relying on Fairclough's three-dimensional approach to critical discourse analysis, he has recognized the concepts of discourse and power as an arena for reconfiguring the function of the pen- Box, not as an artistic object but as a tool for assigning a position. And it tries to answer the question: What are the discourse systems in the iconography of Pen- Boxes. This research is based on assumptions. According to Fairclough, discourse also includes visual text. Accordingly, discourse as social action is manifested in three levels: text analysis, discourse, and critical discourse. The findings of the research show that the artist consciously created a discourse to legitimize the Qajar government by combining the discourses of tradition and modernity, breaking the rules of time, and combining metaphorical elements in terms of the use of positions and common themes. Defining metaphors by pencil illustrators, by displaying history and events based on the discourse of their class, somehow create their desired meaning and then create different and newer metaphors according to the function of ideology, culture and history. . In this way, they legitimize their discourse and de-legitimize the rival discourse, and this is the process of convincing the audience. According to the research findings, painters and iconographers confiscate metaphors in their favor and even depict icons in order to replace the metaphorical function of the pen to give a position instead of a pen maintenance tool. As the article showed, pens were a dual-purpose tool for maintaining writing tools and giving positions in the Qajar period. The undercoat painting of the pens is like text and consists of multiple layers. In answer to the question: What are the discourse systems in the iconography of pens? It should be said that the systems of these motifs are in line with the dominant discourses of the Qajar period, the discourse of archeology and nationalism, the religious in the Qajar period. The metaphorical encounter with the "other" is clearly seen in many works of the Qajar period, including tiles and pens. Putting together several pictorial texts, including Heaven and Hell and images of war, evokes the Qajar kings' concern about political relations with other countries, as well as the sense of fear and threat posed by Russia's recent invasion of Iranian territory.In addition to being a tool for writing, pens had a metaphorical function for giving verdicts to individuals in the Qajar period. Iconography of pens as a medium by using metaphorical images and related mental concepts, create the audience's mental belief. In order for the discourse of power to gain more legitimacy, the discourse of power of the Qajar kings uses the metaphors of the rival discourse from the iconography of the battlefields with the enemies and rivals of Iran in the Qajar period.

It has become a reality in the world of contemporary visual media that some of images and visual texts attract viewers and researchers to their similarities with other images - in a real or imagined way - while furthermore, constantly encouraging them to discover and examine an intra-textual relationship and interaction. Conducted as comparative and descriptive-analytical research, this intra-disciplinary study compared two works of fine art: Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Abd-ol-Khalegh Khan’s photograph of Zell-e Soltan. As part of this comparison, it employed the qualitative method of Gillian Rose’s post-constructionist discourse analysis to explore the intercultural interactions as well as the constructed discourses in the two images and to investigate the influence — or lack thereof — of apparatuses of power on the development of those discourses. The research questions were: “In the studying the artworks, what discourses are constructed and how are they constructed?” and “In what way are they similar in this regard?” The findings indicated that Velázquez and Abd-ol-Khalegh Khan have constructed, as both the artist and the subject of their piece, a different and dominant body of themselves without any influence from institutional systems and by sidelining power holders. In both images, the discourse of art and that of politics are in conflict with each other, and both artists, by adopting the same representation approach, implicitly point to and highlight the overpowering of politics by art. It seems that in this historical intercultural interaction between the East and the West, Abd-ol-Khalegh Khan was influenced, as an artist, by Velázquez’s critical approach in Las Meninas in the creation of his photograph.

Discourse analysis of postal stamps with cultural theme in two periods ofPahlavi and the Islamic Republic of IranThe postal stamp is a visual element, in which the pictures express the official views of each government on various matters and easily showcase the discourses of power in society in both covert and overt layers of these visual elements. This visual element uses image language to accurately represent the culture of society.Discourse analysis reveals the relationship between society, authority and ideology by revealing discourse-oriented indicators, emphasizes that society is nothing but a composition of different discourses; Therefore, in order to distinguish itself from others, each country has highlighted the symbols that express the ideology of its society. This research asks the question of what discourse basis are in the cultural themed postal stamps of the Pahlavi period and the Islamic Republic of Iran? And also what discourse could hegemonicize itself in these stamps and exclude or marginalize other discourses? By using descriptive, analytical, comparative and qualitative methods with the aim of identifying the common discourse basis in the cultural themed stamps of these two periods and the mechanisms of power discourse in them, the theory of Laclau and Mouffe discourse analysis in studying this stamps has been used. The result also indicates that In cultural stamps, discourse factors have a direct relationship with ideology and authority. By examining these structures, it can be said in the cultural stamps of the Pahlavi era, the dominant discourses are the discourse of antiquarian values, the power of the King and the rebranding of cultural and national identities in a new format; And dominant discourses in the period of the Islamic Republic are, the discourse of Islam, martyrdom and preservation of Islamic and revolutionary values.And dominant discourses in the period of the Islamic Republic are, the discourse of Islam, martyrdom and preservation of Islamic and revolutionary values.

Calligraphy holds a unique place in Islamic arts and has been influenced substantially by historical and social factors from the early centuries to date. An important part of these factors has not been studied mainly due to the singular, concentrated point of view prevalent in common approaches to the study of Islamic calligraphy. A different approach is to not only take into account the historical evolution that have taken place, but also to review the dominant discourses on the calligraphy during different historical periods. Accordingly, the historical evolution of Islamic calligraphy can be recognized by the analysis of discourses that have been prevalent in different historical periods. One of the discourses that has dominated the Islamic calligraphy, especially from the eighth to the eleventh A.H centuries (14th-17th A.D), is a Mystical discourse. The impact of the Mystical discourse is not confined to Islamic calligraphy, and in fact, has resulted in a wide-ranging influence on a variety of practical and theoretical fields. The birth of the Mystical discourse can be traced back to Sufism evaluation in the sixth A.H century (12th A.D). This discourse also created common features in texts and treatises of calligraphy art. Therefore, a careful study of the calligraphy treaties and texts from various fields that have been produced during that era presents a unique and distinct opportunity to understand the features of the Mystical discourse. Hence, the purpose of this research is to recognize and analyze the mechanisms of imposition mystical concepts to the calligraphy through the Neo-historical approach and to adopt discourse analysis method with emphasis on relevant texts. By reviewing the remaining texts of scholars of this period, as well as referring to the opinions of contemporary Islamic art scholars, it is concluded it is concluded that there is a very serious and profound interplay between Sufism with various industries, crafts, sciences and arts in the that period. In this regard, Mysticism and Sufism has been a decisive factor in the conception and developments that have taken place in Islamic calligraphy. Actually, Islamic calligraphy, synchronous with the Mystical development of the Islamic society, has undergone many changes that are recognizable with refer to texts and calligraphy treatises. Therefore, in this investigation, by referring to several authentic and significant texts from the prominent scholars and calligraphy masters, as well as the specialized calligraphy treatises, we extracted and recognized the features of the Mystical discourse in Islamic calligraphy treatises from the eighth to eleventh A.H centuries (14th-17th A.D). According to the results of this research, the mystical, sacred and spiritual conception of Islamic calligraphy was a specific discursive and historical features of this period and is not an intrinsic, permanent feature of the Islamic calligraphy, but is in stark contrast to other historical Islamic art discourses such as Scientific-Geometric discourse in the Middle Ages. These mystical ideas in opposition to the Sci-Geo discourse in Middle Ages, which also has a direct impact on the Islamic calligraphy until now, in regards to its creation, interpretation and investigations.