Literary Devices in Movie Titles: An Onomastic Study of Two Decades of Iranian Cinema After the Islamic Revolution (1981-2001)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

IRIB University

Abstract

This article examines the recognizable literary devices in the titles of Iranian films during the two decades of 1980s and 1990s. To this end, the titles of 812 films participating in the Fajr Film Festival in the aforementioned span were carefully evaluated for the presence of a range of the most commonly used literary devices, including (a) simile, (b) contrast, (c) allusion, (d) animation/identification, and (e) imagery, using content analysis. The results show that the literary device of simile was present in only four film titles, and a total of fourteen titles contained contrast. Also, 32 film titles contained allusion (literary-artistic (15 cases), religious (10 cases), historical-political (5 cases), and popular culture (2 cases)). The titles of 35 films also included the identification device. In addition, 155 film titles had imagery: "visual" imagery (120 titles), imagery through extrasensory perception (27 cases), "auditory" imagery (3 cases), "tactile" and "olfactory" imagery (2 cases each), and "gustatory" imagery (1 title).

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 07 May 2026
  • Receive Date: 03 December 2025
  • Revise Date: 07 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 07 May 2026