Concepts of Life and Death in Suvashun based on the Semiotics of Black

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor at Hormozgan University

2 M.A. of Persian literature and language

Abstract

Color has a close relation with art, painting and literature. Colors reveal so much about the secrets, as well as the social conditions, of author's era. Colors play an important role in our attitude to existence, way of life and our psychical- spiritual moods. Then through the time they have gotten symbolic roles. They suggest a variety of emotions. Suvashun has an especial place in Persian literature. This novel explains the morality and socio- political conditions of Iranians, especially of the people of Shiraz through World War II. On this account it is a valuable post colonist novel which is the real sequence of Constitutionalism. The Persian literature of the period of Constitutionality in first step conflicted with internal despotism and secondly struggled with colonialism. Colors are present in all layers of Suvashun, explicitly or figuratively. Contemplation to how and in which situation the author uses different colors can be very useful for readers to understand the ideas dominated the author's thoughts as well as her society. In spite that Daneshvar (the author of this novel) has tried to show her optimistic view to social evolution, the extensive use of the color Black which mostly suggests death and mourning, makes it clear that in contrast with her imagination, there is no optimism to social evolution. On the other hand it means that the author's mind has been occupied unconsciously by some unrecognized forces. In this essay we try to prove this hypothesis. According to the results colors are (connotation and denotation) repeated about 2679 times, 14% of which belongs to black. So the color black was repeated more than other colors (452 times).

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