Volume 12, Issue 4 (2021)
LRR 2021, 12(4): 495-529 |
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Jamshidi F, karimi firozjaei A, Chavoshian S. Analyzing the Narrative Structure of Jamalzadeh and Anderson’s Short Stories :A Semiotic Approach. LRR 2021; 12 (4) :495-529
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-36910-en.html
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-36910-en.html
1- Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics, Islamic Azad University- Tehran North Branch- Researcher, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
2- Associate Professor in General Linguistics Department, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran; ,alikarimif@pnu.ac.ir
3- Assistant Professor in English Literature and Language Department, Islamic Azad University, Tehran North Branch
2- Associate Professor in General Linguistics Department, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran; ,
3- Assistant Professor in English Literature and Language Department, Islamic Azad University, Tehran North Branch
Abstract: (3951 Views)
One of the stages of recognizing the intellectual, cultural and emotional characteristics of nations possessing culture and literature is the adjustment of their literary works. Semiotics approach reaches meaning through the literary text, and in this process, regimes of discourse as the main elements of discourse shape the narrative and change from one status to another. This study analyzes of Savab ya Gonah by Jamalzadeh and The Corn Planting by Anderson of two Iranian and American writers by the use of Greimas’s semiotics model, also explicate types of regimes of Discourse.The main question of this research is how the narrative process of signification is formed and what are the most important discourse systems involved in meaning production? The results showed that both authors have used a variety of narrative discourse systems in their story, but the discourse systems of action and Stative have been the dominant discourses in the narrative formation so that the narrative with Stative has turned to action and again to the Stative with aesthetic and mythical type. and we are confronted with the process of forming high spiritual values, and the characters in the story make their mythical presence visible to the audience. But what leads to the difference between the themes of the two stories is the attitude of the actors and the value worldview in these two cultures, such as in the story of Savab ya Gonah, the main actor in the form of religious codes of retribution and reconciliation with death is elevated to the status of myths. However, in The Corn Planting story, the main actors, in the form of Eco-Semiotics codes, linked the death of the child at the end of the narrative by turning to nature and attaining mythical status.
1. Introduction
Developments in the study of the field of sign provided the basis for the transition from structural semiotics to discourse semiotics. Greimas, with his extensive research and new findings, made profound changes in the semiotics of the Paris School, so that the three levels of change created by his studies under the headings: 1) structural semantics; 2) narrative semiotics; 3) discursive semiotics. Accordingly signs in the field of semiotics are manifested beyond the signs in the structural approach, as they are a dynamic and interacting entity, forming meanings and emerging within Regimes of Discourse.The present study intends to study the regime of discourse in two stories by two authors of East and West, based on the discourse semiotics approach, and shows that the types of semantic processes in both stories cause the formation of discourses and the creation of intelligent, emotional and events to show how much the moral, cultural messages and myths hidden in the underlying layers of these narratives can affect the life, thinking and lifestyle of their audiences.
2. Research questions
This study tries to find out what are the types of regimes of discourse used in the story of the authors and how these regimes are formed and from their interaction, the meanings are formed and the narrative is developed. Also, what are the main similarities and differences in the process of producing meaning in the stories in question? The next question is what moral themes, characterization, and mythology are used in the underlying layers of these two stories? The main hypothesis of the article is that a set of action and stative discourses and unexpected events play a role in shaping the narrative process and creating meaning, which change its nature by transforming from stative to action and vice versa. The secondary hypothesis is that there is a difference in the occurrence of human actions in both cultures, and this difference in the lifestyle of the actors makes the cultural function different in both discourses.
3. Methodology
The method of this research is descriptive-analytical method and the purpose is to analyze the regime of discourse from the perspective of discourse semiotics and enlighten the action and stative regimes of discourse so that a clearer reading can be done for the reader. In the research model, first, the text of the story is decomposed into its components and parts and then it is analyzed meaningfully by inductive method from the components to the whole text. In this approach, the elements and underlying layers of the text are considered in interaction with each other and processes and regime of discourse are examined and analyzed.
4. Innovation
The present study aims to study and analyze the processes of meaning production and regime of discourse from Savab ya Gonah and The Corn planting short stories according to semiotics approach and comparatively, to analyze and discover the mechanisms of meaning production in two short stories by two Eastern and Western writers so that we reveal the similarities and differences in the cultural and social themes underlying the story.
5. Discussion
In this study, the regime of discourse in two stories by the authors of Eastern and Western and their semiotics relations was examined and depicted by descriptive-analytical method and comparative type. One of the moral points raised in the story of Savab ya Gonah written by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh were the issue of poverty and misery, which are the main cause of crime. They forces Sohrab, who could not afford for himself and his mother’s daily life, to take risks in order to reach the wealth by seizing a part of the wealth of his wealthy neighbor, Haj Fathulla. He enters to tensive regime of discourse and commits the murder of Haj Fathulla and is imprisoned. In this part of the narrative, we enter the stative regime of discourse. Sohrab, who has accepted the act of murder by entering the cognitive system, and considers death as liberation from calamities. The semantic processes in this story from the point of view of semiotics show that actions are subject to special conditions and proceed based on cognition and experience and are not based solely on physical strength. Sometimes, actions are a function of emotions and statives and lead to action. In some cases, statives lead to cognition and attainment of the aesthetic. Eventually, by entering to the aesthetics of nothingness and absence atmosphere, death becomes a stage for revival and spiritual life. The main actor of the narrative, with the retribution of his death, is linked to a myth in an aesthetic process such as light-winged birds, and at the end of the tensive process, he clearly explains the fluidity of meaning and its non-confinement in stereotyped forms. That is, the narrative changes from stative to the action regime of discourse and finds its way back to the stative which is of aesthetic and mythical nature.
Table 1
The story processes of Savab ya Gonah at a glance
The main theme of The Corn Planting is the pride and being happy for what we have, sacrifice in maintaining it and accepting the situation of life, patience and endurance in the face of adversity. The main semantic processes in this story have advanced the narrative, using the intelligent regime of discourse means actional discourse as well as the emotional regime of discourse, stative discourse. In this story, actions are linked to cognition, and sometimes they are subject to the morality of ethics and create love, sometimes they are the generators of love and affection, and they figure out some cases of dependency. Even the occurrence of an unexpected event, in addition to the action, leads to the transcendence of the concept of death, patience and perseverance. In other words, Hatch and his wife's dependency on their only child, leads to uninterrupted work on the farm. With the event of Will's death, we enter a tensive space, but the occurrence of a tensive atmosphere instead of disturbing the mental balance of the main characters of the narrative, by working non-stop on the farm, is an attempt to nostalgia which is aesthetic and mythical. In other words, he makes them a myth who like a saint worshiping and praying in the sanctuary of worship, has surrendered. The aesthetic atmosphere of the corn planting has also gone beyond myth, and every moment, by planting death in the heart of darkness, waiting for sprouting hope and lif in the bed of existence.
Table 2
The story processes of The Corn Planting at a glance
6. Conclusion
The findings indicated that in the comparison of these two narratives, the most important regime of discourse are stative, action and the occurrence of an unexpected event cause a transformation in the stative regime of discourse and mythical. Ultimately distinguishes the two narratives is the lifestyle and performance of the actors and their cultural differences. Because in the story of Savab ya Gonah, the main actor achieves the status of a myth by choosing death and retribution, and in the story of The Corn planting the main actors in the form of Eco-Semiotics codes, by turning to nature and accepting the loss of a child, transcend his death to the status of a myth.
1. Introduction
Developments in the study of the field of sign provided the basis for the transition from structural semiotics to discourse semiotics. Greimas, with his extensive research and new findings, made profound changes in the semiotics of the Paris School, so that the three levels of change created by his studies under the headings: 1) structural semantics; 2) narrative semiotics; 3) discursive semiotics. Accordingly signs in the field of semiotics are manifested beyond the signs in the structural approach, as they are a dynamic and interacting entity, forming meanings and emerging within Regimes of Discourse.The present study intends to study the regime of discourse in two stories by two authors of East and West, based on the discourse semiotics approach, and shows that the types of semantic processes in both stories cause the formation of discourses and the creation of intelligent, emotional and events to show how much the moral, cultural messages and myths hidden in the underlying layers of these narratives can affect the life, thinking and lifestyle of their audiences.
2. Research questions
This study tries to find out what are the types of regimes of discourse used in the story of the authors and how these regimes are formed and from their interaction, the meanings are formed and the narrative is developed. Also, what are the main similarities and differences in the process of producing meaning in the stories in question? The next question is what moral themes, characterization, and mythology are used in the underlying layers of these two stories? The main hypothesis of the article is that a set of action and stative discourses and unexpected events play a role in shaping the narrative process and creating meaning, which change its nature by transforming from stative to action and vice versa. The secondary hypothesis is that there is a difference in the occurrence of human actions in both cultures, and this difference in the lifestyle of the actors makes the cultural function different in both discourses.
3. Methodology
The method of this research is descriptive-analytical method and the purpose is to analyze the regime of discourse from the perspective of discourse semiotics and enlighten the action and stative regimes of discourse so that a clearer reading can be done for the reader. In the research model, first, the text of the story is decomposed into its components and parts and then it is analyzed meaningfully by inductive method from the components to the whole text. In this approach, the elements and underlying layers of the text are considered in interaction with each other and processes and regime of discourse are examined and analyzed.
4. Innovation
The present study aims to study and analyze the processes of meaning production and regime of discourse from Savab ya Gonah and The Corn planting short stories according to semiotics approach and comparatively, to analyze and discover the mechanisms of meaning production in two short stories by two Eastern and Western writers so that we reveal the similarities and differences in the cultural and social themes underlying the story.
5. Discussion
In this study, the regime of discourse in two stories by the authors of Eastern and Western and their semiotics relations was examined and depicted by descriptive-analytical method and comparative type. One of the moral points raised in the story of Savab ya Gonah written by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh were the issue of poverty and misery, which are the main cause of crime. They forces Sohrab, who could not afford for himself and his mother’s daily life, to take risks in order to reach the wealth by seizing a part of the wealth of his wealthy neighbor, Haj Fathulla. He enters to tensive regime of discourse and commits the murder of Haj Fathulla and is imprisoned. In this part of the narrative, we enter the stative regime of discourse. Sohrab, who has accepted the act of murder by entering the cognitive system, and considers death as liberation from calamities. The semantic processes in this story from the point of view of semiotics show that actions are subject to special conditions and proceed based on cognition and experience and are not based solely on physical strength. Sometimes, actions are a function of emotions and statives and lead to action. In some cases, statives lead to cognition and attainment of the aesthetic. Eventually, by entering to the aesthetics of nothingness and absence atmosphere, death becomes a stage for revival and spiritual life. The main actor of the narrative, with the retribution of his death, is linked to a myth in an aesthetic process such as light-winged birds, and at the end of the tensive process, he clearly explains the fluidity of meaning and its non-confinement in stereotyped forms. That is, the narrative changes from stative to the action regime of discourse and finds its way back to the stative which is of aesthetic and mythical nature.
Table 1
The story processes of Savab ya Gonah at a glance
| stative regime of discourse |
actional regime of discourse | event | Cognitive space | tensive space | transformation of the actional regime of discourse into the stative regime of discourse of aesthetic (transcendental) kind |
| Poverty and misery of Sohrab family |
Sohrab and his mother's efforts for livelihood and the narrator's support of them |
Sohrab committed murde | confession of murder committed by Sohrab and blaming himself |
The torment of the victim's conscience in Sohrab's dream and the death of Sohrab's mother | Acceptance of retribution by Sohrab and death is a stage of his spiritual life |
The main theme of The Corn Planting is the pride and being happy for what we have, sacrifice in maintaining it and accepting the situation of life, patience and endurance in the face of adversity. The main semantic processes in this story have advanced the narrative, using the intelligent regime of discourse means actional discourse as well as the emotional regime of discourse, stative discourse. In this story, actions are linked to cognition, and sometimes they are subject to the morality of ethics and create love, sometimes they are the generators of love and affection, and they figure out some cases of dependency. Even the occurrence of an unexpected event, in addition to the action, leads to the transcendence of the concept of death, patience and perseverance. In other words, Hatch and his wife's dependency on their only child, leads to uninterrupted work on the farm. With the event of Will's death, we enter a tensive space, but the occurrence of a tensive atmosphere instead of disturbing the mental balance of the main characters of the narrative, by working non-stop on the farm, is an attempt to nostalgia which is aesthetic and mythical. In other words, he makes them a myth who like a saint worshiping and praying in the sanctuary of worship, has surrendered. The aesthetic atmosphere of the corn planting has also gone beyond myth, and every moment, by planting death in the heart of darkness, waiting for sprouting hope and lif in the bed of existence.
Table 2
The story processes of The Corn Planting at a glance
| stative regime of discourse |
ethic | actional regime of discourse | event | tensive space | transformation of the actional regime of discourse into the stative regime of discourse of aesthetic (transcendental) kind |
| Parent solitudes for their only child | Will financial support for his parents | the relentless effort of Hatch and his wife | Will 's death in a car accident |
Getting the news of the child's death |
transcendence of the position of the subjects in time of corn planting to worshiping saints |
6. Conclusion
The findings indicated that in the comparison of these two narratives, the most important regime of discourse are stative, action and the occurrence of an unexpected event cause a transformation in the stative regime of discourse and mythical. Ultimately distinguishes the two narratives is the lifestyle and performance of the actors and their cultural differences. Because in the story of Savab ya Gonah, the main actor achieves the status of a myth by choosing death and retribution, and in the story of The Corn planting the main actors in the form of Eco-Semiotics codes, by turning to nature and accepting the loss of a child, transcend his death to the status of a myth.
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