Transtextual Study of Four Paintings of the Contemporary Artist, Aydin Aghdashloo

Gérard Genette named any relationship between one text and other texts “Transtextuality” and divided it into five categories; including intertextuality, paratextuality, metatextuality, architextuality and hypertextuality. We have conducted a case study of four paintings of the Iranian contemporary painter, Aydin Aghdashloo by using the theory of “transtextuality”. These four artworks belong to “the Orientals” series and they depict the Qajar king, Fath Ali Shah. The completion of subject matter and data used in this essay is extracted from library, record and thesis materials and the conduction of the theme is comparative and analytical. The aim of the essay is to evaluate the reasons, which made the theory of “transtextuality” an appropriate critical method for artworks of Aghdashloo. The other aim is to study the five categories of “transtextual” relationship in these four paintings, by focusing on “hypertextuality”. The findings show that the artworks of Aghdashloo are a perfect example of transtextual relations.