Investigation of Dramatic Aspects of the Tale Attar’s Manteq-o-Teyr for cinematic animation adaptation

Persian literary texts, especially the classical ones, have never been written for the purpose of animation display. Nevertheless, some of these texts have dramatic capacities which enables screenwriters to adapt them via various techniques and methods. Attar’s Manteq-o Teyr is regarded as one of the significant mystic poems as well as a classical masterpiece of Persian literature that can be adapted in the genre of animation due to its rich and profound didactic instructions. Animation is a narrative of the impossible world, hence it is not only capable of igniting audience’s surprise and wonder but also capable of depicting the impossible as possible by employing motion, picture and imagination. Applying descriptive-analytical method, the present study aims to analyze dramatic meta-structural elements including dramatic structure (conflict, complication, crisis, and resolution), characterization, setting, dialogue and, etc. based on generic approach and focusing on the type of animation to reveal adaptive capacities of Attar’s Manteq-o Teyr. Consequently, the analysis of the foresaid elements indicated that Attar’s Manteq-o Teyr due to the coherent structures of the tales appropriate for theatrical expression along with the features like motion, picture, and imagination can be regarded as a suitable text for animation script. Furthermore, the presence of complex and symbolic characters, variation in color and motion, as well as, multiple settings and various time of the journey are included among the capacities that enhance the visual features of this text for animation adaptation.