Rhetorical Criticism of the Luti Language in Ali Hatami’s Screenplays

In structural approaches to literary works, the principle of harmony between form and content, along with establishing connections among the work, its context, and the audience, is emphasized, and each rhetorical device is directly examined in relation to the text's position and the audience's context. This means that the foregrounding in an artistic work, if it exceeds or falls short of the context and situation, will be interpreted as non-structural or aesthetically deficient. On the other hand, Ali Hatami, as the author, has focused on the literariness of the text, striving to recreate the space and texture of literariness prevalent in Qajar-era texts, and seeks to imbue his work with an aspect beyond that of a mere film composed of visual units. However, the issue is that his excessive and unstructured use of rhetorical devices in character dialogues turns this potential into a negative aesthetic factor. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze the literariness embedded in the language of the luti characters in Ali Hatami’s screenplays, employing a descriptive-statistical method. The findings briefly reveal that, contrary to Hatami’s efforts to enhance the literary value of his texts through the use of elevated language for these character types, this approach has in fact become a counterproductive element. The ostentatious dialogues of his jāhel characters have resulted in distancing the work from its audience, historical context, and social reality.
Introduction
Ali Hatami's cinema stands apart from its historical precedents and contemporary counterparts, with a significant portion of this distinction rooted in his narrative approach, which diverges from the conventional cinematic traditions in Iran. His distinctive affinity for employing the expressive style of the Qajar era alongside the vernacular of the streets and bazaars from the early Pahlavi period, combined with his unique typification and character development, imbues his works with a particular poetic and nostalgic quality, ultimately forging a specialized linguistic idiom. The application of language in narrative works, particularly through dialogue, serves to reveal the author's mindset and intentions. Hatami's language in his screenplays is historical, evocative of the Qajar period. The Qajar era, marked by profound social, political, and cultural transformations, exhibits unique linguistic and literary characteristics that Hatami vividly captures. However, this emphasis on the ornate, literary language of the Qajar period has advanced to such an extent that the characters in his narratives speak in an unparalleled manner, creating a certain distance from the audience. Thus, this study aims to examine the relationship between the rhetorical elements employed in the luti (chivalrous) characters of Hatami's works and their audience.
 
Materials & Methods
Rhetorical criticism represents one of the longstanding movements in literary analysis, encompassing the examination of expressive and stylistic features in literary works, such as the study of classical texts and authors through traditional literary critical lenses. A key feature of literary criticism involves rhetorical analysis based on expressive and stylistic attributes, which evolved with the advent of modern applied rhetoric theories into what is termed rhetorical criticism. This approach entails referencing literary works to assess their capacities for foregrounding and norm-breaking at the linguistic level, tailored to each language's potentials. Dramatic texts, as primary targets, strive to transcend the familiar boundaries of language through literariness and linguistic prominence, where the application of literary devices emerges as one of the most effective methods. Consequently, rhetorical analysis constitutes a primary priority in dissecting dramatic texts or screenplays, illuminating how the author's perspective manifests post-performance in dialogues and monologues (the discursive dimension of the text) and signaling the nature of their central communicative act.
Research findings
In the film Madar (Mother), Ali Hatami embodies the archetype of luti chivalry and gallantry through the character of Mohammad Ebrahim, while in the series Hezar Dastan (Thousand Hands), he centers on Shaban Estekhoni, highlighting two facets of this persona. In both dimensions, linguistic play, hyperbole in simile accumulation, the creation and deployment of metaphors, allusions, and other literary devices overshadow the conveyance of meaning and message in dialogues, often to the point where general audiences struggle to comprehend certain lines. This privileging of rhetorical form over semantic content becomes so pronounced that even specialized viewers, particularly the educated elite, falter in grasping nuances, requiring research or deep investigation into sources for textual understanding. This phenomenon contravenes the principle of structural coherence and alignment between part and whole, thereby revealing a systemic inconsistency in Hatami's compositional framework. Following the identification of these elements in both works, their defamiliarization at linguistic levels is delineated, culminating in statistical validation of this hypothesis within the textual corpus.
Hatami employs allusions in luti dialogues—exploiting polysemy and both semantic layers—predominantly of the implicative type, which are not overly obscure. In both directing and dialogue writing, he leverages simile so innovatively that precise statistical scrutiny reveals its dominance over visual imagery and dramatic action. The metaphors that emerge prominently gravitate toward honorific titles, invectives, and the like. Based on documented extractions from the two works, expressive devices in luti and jahel (underworld tough) speech prioritize stylistic flourishes over mere rhetoric, elevating the text from plain prose to technically ornate prose, akin to the writings of literati like Qa'em Maqam's Munsha'at. This shift undermines the overarching dialogic structure, as thinker Mikhail Bakhtin posits the word in dialogue as a bidirectional act interfacing simultaneously with the word itself and the listener, forging reciprocal dynamics where words orchestrate the exchange. In novels, conversational essence manifests as stylistic prose; poetic essence aligns with monologue, where the poet pursues totalizing monologism. Here, Hatami's poetic dimension concretely asserts itself, propelling his work from prose toward poetry. Thus, the monologic and univocal thrust of his writing intensifies, severing ties with audiences at the highest levels.
 
 
Discussion of Results & Conclusion
Analysis of Hatami's texts raises a critical question: the ratio of literary language and formal foregrounding to character typology, its requisites, audience positioning, and auditory encounter fails to demonstrate proper parallelism and adequacy, particularly in the recurrent luti and jahel vernacular. Audience expectations, textual context, historical fabric, and narrative realism in Hatami's oeuvre demand such alignment for luti characters and their speech. Data and derived statistics confirm that the jahel archetype across both works utilizes rhetorical devices at expressive and stylistic levels in 198 of 333 sentences. In essence, the language-character relationship in these seminal Hatami texts emerges as disproportionate and habit-driven. Through this imbalance, Hatami fails to technically differentiate the jahel from literati, artists, teachers, and others—a structural flaw in screenwriting and narration. Ultimately, Hatami's prioritization of "Saadi of Iranian cinema" status insulated him from direct realism, character exigencies, and broad audience engagement.