"Image/Text Semiotics" published

IBNA: The book deals with a recent theory of pictorial semiotics as applied for a bi-textual study of 'image' and 'text'.

This book makes a survey of the theory of pictorial semiotics and comparative study of image and text as a recent approach in contemporary semiotic studies.

According to Farzaneh Doosti, author, the book begins with a survey of Image/Text dichotomy through the history of art and it's reaching maximum interaction and harmony during the Renaissance. Then, it takes an eclectic approach to the study of narrative in 'painting' and 'poetry' mainly based on Gerard Genette's theory of Hypertextuality – discussed in his 'Palimpsests' – and in the light of Kooistra's concept of 'Bitextuality' between image and text and Sonesson's development of Pictorial Semiotics.

The theory follows with a case study of the myth of 'Venus and Adonis' as related by Ovid and then makes a hypertextual study of Shakespeare's verbal and Titian's visual reconstructions of the narrative each within their own cultural context. According to Doosti, "Hypertextual Semiotics approach tends to find out how these two verbal and visual texts come up with different readings of a single story, and why?"

Farzaneh Doosti is an Iranian researcher and the current book is a result of her MA thesis. "Since the English volume had no particular audience or sponsor to get published in Persian," she explained, "I decided to publish it in English via Lambert Academic Publications to get more feedback from those interested in this theory."

She continued, "However, since both the theory and reading strategy is quite new, I have decided to rewrite my reading strategy for Persian audiences and instead of limiting it to the Renaissance context, I am working on cases from Persian arts and literature next to universal examples." The Persian volume is under compilation and will be given to an Iranian publisher immediately after its completion.

"Image/Text Semiotics: A Hypertextual Reading of Shakespeare's and Titian's Venus and Adonis" written by Farzaneh Doosti is recently published by Lambert Academic Publications and is accessible through online booksellers like Amazon and Priceminister.

Farzaneh Doosti is translator, poet, writer and researcher. She holds an M.A. in English Literature from Shahid Beheshti University and has worked as lecturer and Research Assistant there.