Semiotics of Collective Memory of the Iran-Iraq War (Holy Defence): A Case Study of the Shared Images in Virtual Social Networks

This study aims to achieve a semiotic understanding of collective memory of the Iran-Iraq war. For this purpose, samples of images in virtual social networks shared in response to the news of discovery and return of the bodies of more than 175 divers have been analyzed. Visual signs in photographs, cartoons, graphic designs, prints, paintings and posters, in methods of historical pictures and frame-images, give forms and contents to the collective memory of the Iran-Iraq war. To identify signs that represent the past and discern their roles in the narrative patterns of the collective memory of war for today›s society, Peirce and Geertz›s theories have been used. The results show several themes in the narrative patterns of the collective memory of war, which include: the sanctity of patriotic death, contrastive meaning of everyday life and heroic life, sincerity against corruption in the models of action, shift to the body, martyr›s body as a cultural object, and the politicization of the collective memory of war. These themes reflect the occurrence of fundamental changes in the system of representation of war in three decades have passed since the end of war.