Comparative Semiotics of Resistance Poetry and Graphics (Studying a Selection of Resistance Poems and Posters)

Introduction

Since the beginning of philosophical discussions in the field of art, there have been extensive discussions about its definition, philosophy and function; for instance, regarding the work of art, "formalists use the word poet in the general sense of an artist, based on a long-standing tradition that has its roots in the debates of Plato and Aristotle. Moreover, when they talk about poetry, they mean not only poetry, but also the work of art" ((Payandeh, 2017 A: 34). What connects these two fields together is the process of creation (Poiesis) and construction. These discussions, which continue to these days, entered newer fields in the 20th century in the process of texts reading. With the establishment of the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies of the University of Birmingham in 1964 and the foundation of cultural studies, the scope of literary studies and especially critical studies expanded and included a wide range of texts in addition to various semiotic systems, in such a way that there was no longer a difference between verbal and visual texts. The result of such approaches to text led to the expansion of interdisciplinary studies, including comparative studies of art and literature; two sign systems that are connected in different cultures have different ancient histories. The connection between writing and image in Iranian-Islamic culture also has a long history. The illustration of written texts, including Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, in the flourishing periods of Iranian art, especially Tabriz I and II, Isfahan, and even the early Qajar period indicates a deep connection between literature and, especially, Persian poetry with visual arts; it is rare to find an illustrated version that is not decorated with poems by famous Iranian poets. The comparative study of the works of these two sign systems can help to understand the implied meaning of the texts.  
 
2- Methodology
In this article, a comparative study of a selection of poems and posters of resistance is carried out with the semiotics approach of Michael Riffaterre, in order to determine how the works of these two fields are linked together and how the texts of these two fields present common concepts with different expressive tools. According to Riffaterre, "every poem has a single idea that is expressed in several different ways in its text." (Riffaterre, quoted by Payandeh, 2017A: 21) This single idea, which is the central and main matrix of the poem, is expressed in different and sometimes seemingly contradictory terms in the poetic text. The central idea or the matrix of the poem organizes the entire text and frees it from fragmentation.
This research is a descriptive-analytical research whose data is collected via library sources and the method of data analysis is qualitative. In this research, for the comparative and semiotic study of resistance poems and posters, works of contemporary Iranian poets and designers were selected in a purposeful way; in the sense that, firstly, samples were selected that fulfill the research objectives, and secondly, the selected samples from the two fields of poetry and poster have common themes.
 
3- Discussion
In this section, three examples of resistance poems were compared with three examples of resistance posters as follows:
 
3.1. Case study
One of the important themes in resistance art is the issue of Palestine and the freedom of Quds Sharif, which has always been the concern of contemporary Iranian artists. Amiri Firouzkohi, in an ode titled "O Vatan", considers the conquest of Quds, and gave good news to the zealous youth of the homeland for its freedom, calling it Fatah al-Fatuh. Majid Qaderi also depicted the enclosure of this holy place in a poster titled "Quds". In these two visual and verbal texts, the designer and the poet have a common goal; both of them focus on a single matrix, but they have chosen different methods and expressions; since the different mechanism of meaning creation in the poem and the poster requires that different elements be chosen to strengthen the single matrix.
 
3-2- Case study
Another issue that artists in the field of resistance have always paid attention to is the issue of war and sacred defense. "A poem for war" is the title of a piece by Qaiser Aminpour, in which he has depicted the resistance and standing of the people against the enemies, despite the blows that have been inflicted. Ali Vazirian also depicted warriors in the poster "Either conquest or Martyrdom" who resist the path of conquest until they reach the high position of martyrdom. Vazirian's poster can be considered equivalent and visual translation of Aminpour's poem; it is as if the designer has illustrated the poet's expressions. Both texts depict the same matrix, although they use different signs.
 
3-3- Case study
Another subject that resistance artists have always paid attention to is patriotism. Nasrullah Mardani has depicted the height of the warriors' patriotism in a poem entitled "Habil-E- Aftab" from the collection of Blood letter of soil. Ali Mostafavi has also depicted the sacrifice of Hajj Qasim in defending the borders of the Islamic homeland in a poster he designed for the special poster section of the 6th World Resistance Art Festival with the theme of martyr Haj Qasim Soleimani. Like the previous examples, the matrix of Mardani's poem and Mostafavi's poster have a single concept, which is the sacrifice of the soldiers of the homeland to protect Iran's borders. These two texts, which are translations of each other, have shown a single idea with different signs.
 

Conclusion

Every text - written or visual - expresses a single idea, which is called the "Matrix" of text according to Riffaterre, while other elements strengthen this matrix. The semiotic analysis of texts from the two fields of poetry and poster design showed that the concerns of poets and graphic designers, which is the matrix of their texts, are common and their means of expression are different. The origin of the poetry of some contemporary poets such as Amiri Firouzkohi, Aminpour and Mardani refers to concepts such as the conquest of Ghods, resistance and patriotism, which are expressed in words. On the other hand, designers such as Ghudarzi, Vazirian and Mostafavi have expressed the same concepts using visual symbols. The most important tool of the poet to cultivate the poetic matrix is words and figures of speech to strengthen the implied angles of the matrix from a semantic point of view. On the other hand, the graphic designer strengthens the central matrix of the poster by using symbolism, elements and visual qualities such as color and composition. From another point of view, the comparative study of examples of poetry and graphics showed that the artist - whether a poet or a graphic designer - is not indifferent to the oppression of the world around him and is concerned about the struggle. The oppressions that is inflicted on the oppressed in different societies always acts as a motivation for the creation of works of art. The sharing of themes in selected samples of poetry and graphics proved the validity of this claim.