The Discursive Turn of a Literary Narrative after Its Transition to Illustration

The present study employs an interdisciplinary approach to analyze the transference of meaning from literature to illustration, and the links between the narrative in the tale of “The Old Woman and Sultan Sanjar” in Nizami’s Makhzan al-Asrar and the narrative in the illustration of The Old Woman and Sultan Sanjar painted by Sultan Mohammad Tabrizi. The article tries to discover the surface and deep discontinuities and continuities between the two works and studies the semantic transition and, hence, the production of secondary meanings in the illustration. Thus, it argues that the transference of meaning from literature to illustration is reflected in the two surface and deep structures, which are interconnected. The central position of “The Old Woman and Sultan Sanjar” in Nizami’s narrative, its transference to the realm of illustration, and the use of metonymy in the creation of the illustration represent the surface continuities of the two written and visual narratives. Yet, there is a discontinuity between the story and the illustration in this very structure. The difference in tones of the narratives, the expansion of descriptive characterization and reduction of metaphorical aspects of the illustration reflect the divergence of the two works. In the deep structure, too, Tabrizi’s work diverges from the purpose of Nizami’s narrative and, instead of ethics, advocates politics.