Many a time symbolic expression is morn effective than explicit and colloquial one, because it can arise the attention of the audience and leave profound impact on him/her, just as scorn and irony during a wrangle may produce more effect than abusive or derisive language. In symbolic expression as compared to direct language the interlocutor has a greater share in comprehending the point, since he/she has to pay more heed to share understanding with the speaker. Actually, it is the peak of an artist’s Ideal to arise the attention of his/her audience. The brevity of symbolical and metaphorical expression makes the artist avert loquacity and will reduce possible monotony in his/her work. In fact, the artist has to employ metaph or and symbol for rapid communication, greater understanding and more effective call. The designs in Mulla Nasroddin’s Weekly are formal irony and symbol often with symbolic designs (mostly animals) contributing to greater understanding of the concepts. This method coupled with satire make the subject as well as the mielu of the design tangible and perceptible, as it visualizes a precise picture of every symbol. (The symbols in the form of imaginative creatures in one of Roter designs represent the artists correct and creative understanding of the device which was considered as an innovation in the thee Iranian press. In this design the Iranian people, who spent life in slumber and apathy, are being swallowed by two dragons which represent the two despotic Qajar and Czar dynasties. In this way Roter has shown the people’s lethargic indifference to their surrounding developments with a tint of discomposure and apprehension applying symbolic dragons. He has made his design more effective by correct and conscious use of symbolic elements.
In another design Roter symbolically satirizes his society’s health performance by picturing scorns of mice sitting in circle engaged in talking. In this design the chief mouce is shown fearing the epidemic plague prevailing among mankind, forbidding other mice from approaching human beings. This Irony is in fact stinging satire, mocking the interlocutor. The design shows the mouce, which is itself the cause of the disease, as a health official. As such the artist applies symbols to treat serious subjects and at the same time presents his ideas with piercing satirical effect more impressive than a lengthy declaration on health care.
In 1911 Roter caricatures Mohammad Ali Shah as a wild cow which the scared people of Iran have ringed, beating it with shovel and pick. In the meantime, a picture of a man with army uniform represents munitnous army men rising up against the Shah. In this picture Potter shows a perturbed Mohammad Ali Shah having almost no popularity among army men, for which he appoints colonel Liakhov (a Russian commander) as Tehran’s military governor, ordering him to shell the Mauls (Parliament).
Roter drew this picture at a time when Mohammad Ali Shah had reentered Iran via Gorgan after flying to Russia in January 1991. Aided by Russian government, he returns to Iran and departs for Tehran with the help of dissident Turkmen’s, but in the ensuing clashes his supp4èrs are weeded out, with the Shah himself again fleeing to Russia. With this historical background it can be judged that the artist has presented a bitter reality in a naked and profound form by caricaturizing the Shah as a cow with human body, representing a wild and stupid animal, while at the same time causing the people to laugh.
One of the most important and complex problems of an artist is in fact the expression and display of the psychological condition o f intended characters. This problem, course, can be solved by resort to symbols and visual metaphors. In another design, Roter employs two characters to show his characters thought, feeling and inner mood: a man with his donkey!! He conveys his mental conceptions by picturing them in a state of cowtow with hands, in homage. In his designs Poter uses the picture of a donkey which is the symbol of ignorance and stupidity. With this background
he puts his audience in a situations to compare the two and arrive at a joint conclusion. Here a symbol or a visual metaphor can have a popular prevailing impact.
Of course, it should be noted that piecing pictures or symbols besides each other for a satirized and caricaturized purpose was a method prevailing among the artists with Mulla Nasruddin Weekly and especially in Roter’s works. With this method they prompted their readers to search for the artists’ implied meanings of the designs, using simple comparative expression.In fact the main reason for the popularity of MuIla Nasroddin’s Weekly was
his simple language mingled with symbols and satirical expressions, a direct and simple language which developed in graduate, and being greatly employed by most of the Iranian newspapers and publications. The style of MuIIa Nasroddin’s Weekly so impressed the media men that they adopted the Mulla’s materials and published it in “Iran”, a publication. Some of the newspapers inspired by MuIla Nasroddln’s style were “Azarbaijan” in Tabriz, “Nasim-e-Shomal” in Rasht, “Buhlool” in Baku, and “Sour-e-Esrafil” in Tehran.
It can be said that most of the materials used by these publications were adaptations and even translations of the Mulla’s Weekly.
SOURCES:
1) Akhondov Nazem AzarbaIja ‘Tanz Roznameh Lary”, Tehran; Farzaneh Publication, Sep 1971.
2) Aryanpour Yahya, “From Saba to Nima”, Tehran Amir Kablr Publication
3) Pifoun, Muhammad, Mulal Nasruddin’s Pake
Enghelab, Tehran, Car Publication, 1979.
