A S tudy of the Transformation of Expression of Imagination in Pardeh-Khani Based on the Opinions of Gilbert Durand (Case S tudy: Image of Heaven and Hell)

Coffee-house painting is one of the mos t important branches of Iranian folk painting which is mainly identified with the s tories of Karbala despite its martial and lyrical themes. The s tructure of coffee-house paintings is in harmony with the theme of the s tories they depict. In other words, the coffee-house painting are not a partial representation of an external object, but are generally recognized as portraits that depict various scenes of a given event by creating some sort of link between different events which have taken place at different times and places. In more concrete words, the painter depicts their favorite themes without regard to time, place, realism, or the rules and principles of perspective. These paintings are closely linked to another type of folk art, namely narrative and picture narration. The conceptual themes of these arts are about good and evil, as well as the narrative and depiction of heaven and hell. Accordingly, this s tudy aims to unders tand the conceptual relationship between the s tructure of picture narrator’s narrative and coffee-house painting and to compare the transformation of imagination in two areas of painting and drama. The s tudy seems to give rise to the manifes tation of a fresh look at the arts of performance and painting together. In this regard, by collecting information in a documentary manner and using a descriptive-analytical approach, while analyzing the visual elements of one of the works of coffee-house painting and, accordingly, citing the narratives of famous picture narrators, the research uses Gilbert Durand’s views regarding the nightly constellation of imagination and daily constellation of imagination to address the central issue of the paper which is the transformation of imagination between painting and dramatic action in picture narration. The inclination of Durand towards Eas tern Islamic mys ticism and her interes t in myth led to formulation of the hypothesis that there may be similarities between her view and picture narration. According to Durand, in addition to the results leading to the image which forms the imagination, the process of imagination begins from the moment of receiving the object to its formation in the mind. The act of narrating the picture narrative by displayer transmits it, with the help of human action, from the unconscious scope of the imagination diurnal regime to the imagination nocturnal regime which is conscious. That is, due to being performed in the presence of audience, picture narration is much more effective and influential. The result was obtained by the observation of the audience’s dynamic imagination through performance, the transformation of the regimes from diurnal to nocturnal in three types of picture narration and, finally, the observation of the nocturnal regime effectiveness compared to diurnal regime in picture narration.