A Study of the Function of Color in Hamid Mossadegh''''s Poetry and Thought (Based on Max Luscher''''s Color Psychology)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Immam Khomeini International university, Qazvin, Iran

2 Master of pure literature, Immam Khomeini university, Qazvin. Iran

Abstract

Introduction

Due to the increasing progress of science, in the twentieth century, for the first time, members of the Research Council in the social sciences used the term interdisciplinary. This approach created an integration between different disciplines that were splitting and turned scientific autonomy into scientific collaboration. Because literature originates from the human mind and psyche and covers a wide range, it has its roots in various sciences including psychology. This science deals with the cognition of the psyche, and since it’s impossible to study the psyche directly, its external manifestation, that is behavior, is examined. One of the behaviors that leads us to know more about the human mind is writing, which is directly related to literature. In the psychology of colors (which is a branch of psychology), the choice of color, desire and hatred to it, is related to the personality of the individual and leads us to an understanding of the mental state of the individual.
In this research, the position and importance of color in the poetic language of Hamid Mossadegh and Ahmad Shamloo are investigated;  Of course, with a psychological approach and with this method, a better understanding of their poetry will be obtained. Aspects of the poet''s personality and outlook will be discovered to some extent through the colors and symbols made of color and the dominant atmosphere in his poetry.
 

2. Methodology

 In this research, at first, the related books and works and what is mentioned as a background were studied, and finally, their poems were studied in a descriptive-analytic method. The main sources of this research are "Collection of Poems" by Hamid Mossadegh, "Collection of Poems" by Ahmad Shamloo and "Psychology of Colors" by Max Luscher translated by Vida Abizadeh, and the psychological analyzes are all based on this book. Also, in the study of Shamloo''s poems, Mr. Morteza Mohseni''s article entitled "Color analysis in Shamloo''s poems based on Max Luscher''s theory" was used, of course, in examining the examples, there was a difference with examining the authors in Hamid Mossadegh''s poems, for example,  the color of the night according to Its high frequency was not mentioned in inductive words and white color and its inductive words and brown were not studied and analyzed in general, so for a more comprehensive comparison, these items were added to the present study.
In the Luscher''s psychology of color,  white color is not mentioned and only in the text of the book, white and black are mentioned as two extremes. Therefore, all articles in this field have eliminated white color even in spite of its high frequency in their research.As a result, the poet''s color preferences have changed.For this reason, in the analysis of color pairs, no comparison is made between the analysis and the characteristics of the poems and the personality of the poet. In this article, a different procedure has been adopted in the analysis of poems.Accordingly, white color was not removed and was examined due to its high frequency and its contrast with black, which itself induced in the studied texts. And in the analysis of color pairs, because there was no analysis of white color in Luscher''s psychology, in the first color pair of both poets - which was black and then white - only black color analysis was given; but the poet''s color preferences did not change.
The only purple color, which had no example in Mossadegh''s poetry and was mentioned only three times in Shamloo''s poems, was removed due to the limited frequency in the analysis of color pairs in order to obtain a more consistent analysis with the poems and their characteristics.
 

Discussion

Psychologists carefully use colors to identify the hidden layers of a person''s personality, Jung, one of the greatest thinkers and psychologists of the twentieth century, believed in the symbolic power of colors and encouraged his patients to use colors without thinking while painting , to reveal the deepest part of their subconscious and be able to establish a link between the subconscious and the conscious to achieve mental health (Sun, 1378: 58)
In modern psychology, colors are criteria for measuring personality.Each color has a special mental and physical impact on the person, and people''s tendency to colors shows their mental and physical condition, and this issue has been proven by the advancement of physiology and psychology.Color reveals the innermost thoughts and human emotions and reflects the values of the individual. The colors we love the most represent the hopes and aspirations  that we pursue with passion. The colors that you are least interested in are as important and effective as your favorite colors because they show you all the experiences, situations and people you want to avoid. (Sadka, 2014: 30)
The study of color elements in the poets’ works, changes in the use of color, the type of look at colors, its semantic rotation in every poet and also in each period, it draws our attention to their causes and factors, and finally these aspects and types can move towards scientific criticism and make achievements such as recognizing the poet and entering the world of mind and familiarity with his language through color analysis (Seddiqi, 2005: 6)
This study examines Hamid Mossadegh and Ahmad Shamloo''s poems from the perspective of "color psychology";  and it examines not only the names of colors but also color inducer words to gain another understanding of the poet''s poems and worldview and his personality traits from the angle of colors.Considering that the color elements in the poetry of both poets has a symbolic function and with the theory of sharing the views of two poets in several cases, in this article, using descriptive-analytic method, the poems of two poets have been examined from the perspective of color function.
Due to the importance of color in literature, research in the field of color psychology has been done in  the literary works, some examples of research are as follow:
_ Ghasemzadeh, seyed Ali and Nikoobakht, Naser (2003), "The psychology of color in the poems of Sohrab Sepehri", Literary research, No 2, Pp 145-156.
_ Mohseni, Morteza and Pirooz, Gholamreza and Poorali, Marziye, (2012), "Color analysis in shamloo''s poems based on Max luscher theory", literary research.
_ panahi, Mahin, (2006), "The psychology of color in Nima''s collection of poems", (Based on the color psycology of Max Luscher), Articles in scientific and literary research journals, No 12&13, Pp49-82.
_ Talebanpoor, Parisa, (2011) "Analysis of symbolic concepts of colors in Islamic mysticism" (according to persian prose texts from the fourth century to the end of the seventh century) and its study from the perspective of psychology, Supervisor: Kheirollah Mahmoodi, Ministry of Science, Research and Technology _ State University of Shiraz، Masters.
_ Zabih Nia Omran, Asiye and Hoti Nejad, Seyed Khalaf, (2013), "The psychology of color in the narration of Wameq and Ozra" (Study and analysis of color psychology in four narrations of Wamegh and Azra Hosseini, Joshaghani and Zahir Kermani),  Chideman Farhang, No2, Pp154-162.
 
4.Conclusion
According to the findings of this study, color has a special function in the poetry of Hamid Mossadegh and Ahmad Shamloo and indicates the appropriateness of the poets'' thoughts, feelings and emotions with the social and political life and the requirements of their time. Among the colors, black and white have a high frequency, and these colors are in exact proportion to the situation of the time and its effect on the inner world of both poets.

Keywords


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