Problem Statement:Coffeehouse painting, as a popular artistic movement, transferred art from the exclusive domain of the court and elite classes into the heart of society, playing a significant role in shaping collective consciousness and representing national identity. Nevertheless, the capacities of this school as a discursive medium have received limited in-depth attention in previous studies. The main problem of this research is to elucidate how different components of national identity are constructed and represented in coffeehouse paintings.
Research Objective:This study aims to analyze the role of coffeehouse painting in the formation of national identity and to examine its visual mechanisms in interaction with the artistic and cultural currents of its time.
Research Method:This research is fundamental–theoretical in nature and employs a descriptive–analytical method. The theoretical framework is based on Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (at the three levels of description, interpretation, and explanation), which is applied purposively to four representative works of this school.
Conclusion:Coffeehouse painting functioned beyond mere aesthetic representation and operated as an ideological and discursive act. By rejecting Western and courtly aesthetics and transferring the medium of art into the public sphere, artists of this school generated an alternative identity-based resistance. Through the integration of religious, mythological, and everyday-life signifiers, they consolidated a unified and popular identity in opposition to the dominant discourses of their time.