تحولات نوین مطالعات تطبیقی و گذر از مرزبندی تاریخی رسانه‌های هنر

In general terms, phenomena associated with the Humanities expand ‎and advance in two ‎ways. ‎Based on the first model, a phenomenon may ‎expand and advance from within; and, based ‎on ‎the second model, ‎a phenomenon may do so in accordance with, and ‎proportional to, society and ‎ideology. In other words, the first ‎model helps make such ‎matters more precise and profound, ‎whereas the ‎second model expands them, thus increasing their ‎function. Using new ‎theories ‎about Art, moreover, the ability is bestowed upon the artist to think ‎more deeply even about the ‎artwork of the present day and age. Absence of this approach – as well as lack thereof – is ‎‎oftentimes felt in Art-oriented ‎research in Iran; and, the absence of new ‎theories had led to a lack ‎of interest in the relationship ‎between artwork and ‎today's society.‎ In this article, an attempt has ‎been made to open a ‎different cognitive window in the world of Art ‎by which to conduct a ‎comparison of ‎artworks through describing the new approaches and their implementation ‎models ‎‎as well as predicting the path upon which these ideas are to, and can, embark.‎
Comparative Studies is one of the most widely used and essential ‎methods of examining works ‎‎of Art; it has a great history and has always ‎proceeded in a progressive and forward-looking ‎manner. Various reviews and opinions ‎have been presented ‎about the origins of Comparative ‎Studies. The majority of sources consider ‎the history of comparative Art research to be connected ‎to the history of ‎Comparative Literature ‎which originated in Middle Ages. Additionally, they ‎‎consider political developments to have been the leading factor in the ‎formation of national ‎‎literature in Europe, thus resulting in its theoretical form and formation in the early 18th century‏‎.‎ ‎‎Throughout the course of time up until the 18th century, Comparative Studies between ‎different ‎media had ‎occurred independently and without having a separate ‎name and identity. Until then, ‎the researchers ‎always, and only, compared ‎works of Art and Literature in one or two various ‎media. Today, this ‎‎method of study is used widely in Comparative Literature, having many ‎functions in ‎recognizing and ‎criticizing works of Art, Literature, and the social context of ‎their ‎production.‎ A new branch of Comparative Studies called “Interart Studies” presents ‎a new ‎cognitive ‎approach that considers the quiddity of interaction ‎between singular art media and ‎focuses on ‎identifying and expressing ‎different borders of art media. In the present article, by ‎describing this ‎approach ‎and its implementation models, a different cognitive window has been ‎‎opened in the world of Art for the adaptation of artworks; and, the paths that ‎these theories have ‎in front of them have ‎been accordingly predicted.‎
‎Comparative Studies entered Iran's academic environment rather belatedly. The ‎term ‎‎"Comparative Literature" entered the very lexicon of Iranian research literature for the ‎first time ‎through a translation of a thirty-eight-page-long excerpt from the book ‎Comparative Literature ‎by Marius Francois Guyard, an effort made by Jamshid Behnam. Afterwards, ‎Fatemeh Sayah – a ‎student of European Literature from Moscow – founded ‎the chair of Comparative Literature in ‎Tehran University's Faculty of ‎Literature for the first time in Iran after which research and ‎discussion ‎about this cognitive method and its use did indeed spread. The review of the keyword ‎‎"Comparative Studies" – and the derivatives thereof – in the materials published by ‎Iranian ‎publications, and/or as Iranian theses, delineates the fact that most of the studies have been ‎conducted ‎in the fields of Education, Linguistics, Literature, and – in recent years, ‎increasingly ‎so – Art as well as subject matters of the world of Art.‎ This article evaluates the evolution of ‎early Comparative Studies from ‎its original conception in the ‎18th century to its current inception ‎and situation known as ‎Intermediality and Interart Studies both which have been mentioned ‎above. New studies ‎have pushed "comparison" beyond the adaptation between two similar ‎media ‎so as to achieve a complete understanding and knowledge of Art. They ‎gradually provided a ‎‎better understanding of the boundaries between art ‎media to finally – by approaching the ‎endmost cognitive ‎boundaries of the nature of ‎"Art", which is considered indefinable – ‎distinguish it from "Non-art". ‎These ‎theories open the path towards a connection between, and a ‎joint study of, life and Art.‎
The present piece has ‎used an analytical and comparative approach towards the history of ‎‎Comparative ‎Studies in order to understand the undertaken theoretical methods ‎for expansion in ‎this cognitive field by the virtue of which to ‎reach a new attitude towards artistic ‎media. The ‎current research aims to recognize and explain the ‎developments and ‎achievements of the ‎aforementioned new approach to Comparative Studies so as to open new ‎paths and pathways for ‎research and creation in Art.‎ The importance of ‎conducting this research results from the fact that ‎‎– although this new ‎method of Comparative Studies has been used in other parts of the world ‎in ‎a limited manner due to ‎its complexity – it has not yet been used in a theorized ‎and self-aware ‎form in Iran. The authors have tried to answer the following question. ‎How did the field of Comparative Studies ‎expand along its ‎evolutionary path towards artistic ‎and ‎social developments which have per se created ‎new forms to deal with the recent manifestations ‎of the notion of art ‎media? In the current study, the research hypothesis is thus twofold, ‎proceeding based upon considering a correlation between the evolution ‎of Comparative Studies ‎‎and the issues, media, and new ‎works of Art affected ‎by the changes in society on the one hand ‎and the existence ‎of sufficient ‎evidence for ‎knowing the cycle of this evolution on the other ‎hand.‎ In the investigations carried out in this ‎article, it has been tried to focus on those ‎developments of ‎Comparative ‎Studies which are aligned with artistic expansions in order to ‎obtain a reliable and ‎documented ‎scientific value. Accordingly, to study the relationship ‎between ‎the evolution of the history of ‎thought and artistic changes, ‎the authors have tried to distance ‎themselves from mere ‎historical ‎research and move towards analytical research with defendable ‎and defensible findings that ‎lead them to ‎reach the final theory, that is, to cross the borders of art ‎media. ‎Ergo, the current research is ‎an analytical and historical study ‎wherein the necessary ‎information has been achieved using library sources‏‎ and resources.‎
Under the influence of classical ‎Comparative Studies and by ‎inspecting and comparing artworks ‎between ‎different media, the findings of the present research do show that this new ‎intertheoretical branch has ‎reached a point whereby it ‎has developed a tendency towards ‎dissipating the borders between artistic media, ‎eventually ‎defining all of them to be mere works ‎of art. Accordingly, along the path of ‎comparison ‎between Art and Non-art, certain propositions ‎are obtained to ‎define the nature of Art concerning ‎experimental and experiential means ‎and ‎methods‏‎.‎ Interart Studies, or Interart Aesthetics, should not be ‎considered a new and separate ‎discipline. This type of research is an ‎inter- and multi-disciplinary field of study and can only be ‎concluded when one can ‎study other cultural and social disciplines amid this framework. This ‎field of research ‎ requires crossing traditional boundaries and linking different ‎disciplines to ‎achieve expansion. Not only is comparison a practical method for ‎interdisciplinary studies, but it ‎can also be considered the only available method ‎for cognition; after all, it is the point of ‎discovering differences of/or different ‎arts. That is why Comparative Studies succeeded in its ‎departure from ‎comparing various works of art and towards today's position as a means for ‎proceeding with interdisciplinary ‎study methods, maintaining its function as one of the essential ‎methods of study.