Reading and Analysis of the Elements of the Carpet Named “The Story of Majles-e Zulaikha and Yousef” Woven in Tehran based on Genette’s Theory of Transtextuality

Different literary theories represent various approaches and systems that have been used for the past one or two centuries to read, to analyze, and to interpret verbal and visual texts and intertextual relationships in literary and artistic works and to understand and to receive the inner meanings and layers for the audience, gradually became a range of basics and foundations in researches.  With the passage of time and the emergence of researchers, with partial and general changes in matter and purpose, these theories have changed from an elementary and sometimes flawed level to extended, evolved, and systematic bases and approaches for use in fundamental research. Trans-textual is one of these theories that is used in a wide range of literary and artistic subjects. The core and essence of this theory is the connection of a text with other texts in the path of structuralism and post-structuralism, which started with Yulia (Julia) Kristeva and Roland Barthes and evolved with Gérard Genette. Trans-textual includes any relationship in which a text relates to other texts, whether overt or hidden. Genette believed that within the framework of trans-textual theory, all relationships between a text and its non-text could be studied and analyzed. He introduces and popularizes this belief to separate his approach from post-structuralism attitudes and rulings. Pictorial carpets, centered on religious stories, appear with influence from and reference to past texts, and represent the creation of a visual text made of other older texts, without their existence and presence the late work could not be created. This approach refers to Gérard Genette's theory of trans-textuality, which consists of five bases. Trans-textuality is one of the desirable systems in the reading of native and traditional art subjects. It has been widely used, for example in the subject of pictorial carpets with Quranic and religious subjects, which became popular since the Qajar era, representing narrative and pictorial texts, as well as hidden and symbolic meanings. Their content is taken from religious texts, which are decorated with various verbal and visual texts.
The story of Yousef and Zulaikha is a special example of a religious story, which due to its fictional and visual elements and moral and social messages is one of the Pre-texts for creating works of art (films and paintings) and literature (poems). Many writers, poets, and mystics such as Molavi, Jami, Attar, Nizami, Saadi, and Amir Khosro Dehlavi have rewritten the story of Yuosef and Zulaikha and made it a source of inspiration for writing poetry. In a general view, this story is in a series of stories that have attracted a lot of attention in terms of audience, social scope, and dramatic tension. The central focus and conceptual axis of the story is the opposition of dualities such as true love, decency, piety, seduction, and lust.
 The rug with the title "Majles-e Zulaikha and Yousef" is one of the pictorial rugs woven in the Qajar period, the designer of which tries to visually reflect a part of the ups and downs story of Yousef in the confrontation with Zulaikha (conflict between selfishness and self-esteem). Therefore, in this research, texts of Torah, Qur'an, and Hafez are defined as Pre-texts and rugs with the theme of Yousef and Zulaikha as a manifestation of Hypertext. The purpose of this research is to investigate and to analyze the relationship between the explicit and implicit texts of motifs and signs that shape the content and hidden meanings of the story of Zulaikha and Yousef based on the theory of Trans-textuality and specifically the three approaches of intertextuality, Hypertext, and Paratext. Also, the questions raised in connection with the present topic are: 1. How are the verbal and written equivalents of the approaches of the theory of Trans-text shown in the carpet’s text? 2. How are the relationships between the texts used in the formation of the elements and content structure and the hidden meanings of the carpet? The current research is of a qualitative type and from the point of view of the fundamental goal; it is a descriptive-analytical research method. The method of data collection is based on library research and visual reading of patterns and visual elements of the text. For this reason, the approach of Trans-text has been used as one of the most complete semantic systems of texts for reading and analyzing the text of the work. Also, the method of data analysis is qualitative. The summary of the research results shows that the carpet, while having written and visual elements and systems, has explicit and obvious intertextual relationships with religious stories, and poems as a pre-text for other rugs with similar theme and other rugs of "Majles-e Zulaikha" that were produced after that. The pictorial narrative rugs, the rugs that have this theme on their edges, and also, the Qajar school of carpet weaving are its Para-texts.