Color of the Novel’s Cover; A Sign on the Threshold: A Semiotic Reading of Color of the Cover of Selected Persian Novels

This article tries to use semiotics to study the covers of The Blind Owl, Tangsir, The Tale of Baba Sobhan and Shazdeh Ehtjab in a descriptive-analytical way to shed light on the interplay of the basic elements of painting and literary texts. Because color has the capacity to communicate, nonverbally, with the most active human sense – the sense of sight – it can help us understand the textual space by conveying thoughts without speaking. The artistic use of color plays a special role in creating a creative space for the textual content; it can also challenge the audience’s assumptions by stimulating their emotions and encouraging them to read the book. Therefore, examining the cover of literary texts – the space of color display which is used as a cover for the verbal world – can shed light on the connection between the color of the cover and the textual layers as well as hidden concepts of the text. Analysis of the elements of color in the above-mentioned novels reveals that in some of these texts, the color of the cover is not just a product of the designer’s imagination (a decorative element). Rather, it has a symbolic function and interacts with other paratexts, especially the title, theme and characters; it also plays a main role in the process of production of meaning. In other texts, however, the color serves only an aesthetic function and is used to attract the audience – without having a meaningful connection to the theme.