The Discourse Analysis of ‘the Holy Defence’ Paintings during Wartime (in Comparison with Soviet War Paintings)

Problem Statement:The Art of ‘the Holy Defence’ has been the official trend of Iranian art for the better part of a decade. This art has been a very clear cut materialisation of such discourse that had once been constructed around Iran-Iraq War, commonly known as the Holy Defence discourse. a discourse although surrounded an actual war taking place in an actual time and space yet by no means stayed within its limits and furthermore demonstrated a certain mode of thought that went beyond the military struggles of the given era. This investigation aims to scrutinize the question of the fundamental elements of such discourse and how its elements integrated into the Holy Defence Art during Wartime. The present investigation is a descriptive analytic study that uses books, catalogues, magazines and websites as its main ways of access to the artworks. Having the general theory of the mentioned discourse discussed and the main jargon of this theory defined, the six key elements of this discourse, namely the insiders, the enemy, the fight, the victory, the defeat and the woman, that are the frequent elements of the artistic discourse of the war, have been thoroughly examined. Having the discourse elements of this art studied and compared with another discourse formation of war painting, namely the Soviet Art, the unique way of articulation of such elements in the Holy Defence Painting Discourse is another aim of this study to undertake. This study also intends to look through the decisive role of spirituality in the formation of such discourse and concludes the Holy Defence Discourse Was not just dealing with Iran-Iraq war but it was representing much larger strives which were not confined within the limits of war fronts and military struggles.