Volume 16, Issue 4 (2025)
LRR 2025, 16(4): 339-368 |
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shamsabadi H, Mirzadeh T, Nori keyzghani S, Fesanghari H. The duality of “semiotics” and “pyramat text” is the image on the cover of the book “Ma Tarah Al-Oyun”. LRR 2025; 16 (4) :339-368
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-61628-en.html
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-61628-en.html
1- PhD. Associate Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran , h.shamsabadi@hsu.ac.ir
2- PhD student in Arabic language and literature, Hakim Sabzevari University
3- Assistant Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran
4- Associate Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran
2- PhD student in Arabic language and literature, Hakim Sabzevari University
3- Assistant Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran
4- Associate Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran
Abstract: (2892 Views)
By introducing the category of Paratextuality within his comprehensive theory of transtextuality, Gerard Genette broadened the scope of textual analysis to encompass semiotic perspectives. This allowed for the identification of semantic layers present on a book's cover, emphasizing its crucial role as a text that parallels the book's internal content and other components. The contemporary Egyptian writer Mohammad Taymour authored the first collection of short stories in the Arab world, titled Matra Al-Oyun. The design on his book's cover has a spectacular and impressive impact on the reader, equaling the internal content of the book.The present study aims to analyze the semiotic layers and components of the cover design of Ma’Tra Al-Oyun to understand its semantic and relational connections with the author's internal text and underlying intentions. A descriptive-analytical method was employed. The results show that the cover design, primarily through its prominent functional component of colors, along with the use of the eye shape, broken lines behind the eye, and the letters 'M' and 'A' attached to 'M', effectively reflects the book's title and the author's experiences. These elements establish a semantic relationship that parallels the book's internal text.
1. Introduction
Images themselves are capable of conveying themes, meanings and goals that, together with their constituent elements, will gain multiple narrative power. An image or design made up of shapes, letters, colors, lines, patterns and other components can fall into the realm of conceptual art. The image or design on the cover of a book can also be a conceptual art, meaningful and appropriate to the goals of the book's author and related to internal text of the book. The psychoanalysis of color and the examination of the psychological dimensions of the design components on the book cover are a reflection of semiotic patterns. Semiotics is a related system or network of hierarchically ordered, relations, and the sign is the game of separation, combination and limitation of deep structures beyond the superficial phonological and semantic structures. In general, semiotics can also be considered the science of signification, because the science of signification will understand the specific nature of each of the signer and the signified and their characteristics based on specifying the relationship between the signifier and the signified and the signifier is only able to refer to the linguistic sign by mentally accessing and discovering the content of the signified and is incapable of directly referring to the external signified. The science of signification or semiology can be called the science of achieving and discovering meaning and understanding. Accordingly, semiology is used as a research method in the two fields of recognizing significations and understanding relationships and is the path to recognizing the meaning or meanings of a work. Semiology is divided into three types: iconic, indexical, and symbolic. In the first type, the similarity of the sign with the subject is based, such as the image of a person or thing, and the second type is explained by symptoms of illness, signs of the arrival of a storm, etc., and the symbolic sign can be based on semiotic conventions. They align the iconic sign with the character (characteristic) or the main character of the subject and the implicit implications. On the other hand, the French theorist Gerard Genette, while studying the relationships between texts, arrived at the theory of transtextuality and introduced five categories as subcategories of transtextuality. Among the five categories of transtextuality, the component of paratextuality with its indicators is worthy of studying the design on the cover of the book. In this way, paratextuality, with the categories of dependent and independent paratexts, includes parallel texts of a book or the internal text of a book. Dependent paratexts can be introduced with main and sub-titles, introduction, table of contents, appendices, prefaces, end references, initial and final marginal texts of the book, and the design on the book's cover. Non-dependent paratexts can be introduced with interviews conducted about the book, promotional teasers of the book, and peripheral remarks about the book's criticism and analysis. All of these cases are considered peripheral texts of a book that have deep and parallel relationships between themselves and the main text of the book. Therefore, it is important to examine the design of a book cover with semiotic approaches in direct accordance with Gerard Genette's theory of paratextuality, because semiotics, with its ability to analyze and examine the signifier and signified, is able to achieve a correct understanding of the relationships between texts. So that the various relationships of the book cover design with the internal text as a paratext in retelling the internal content and the author's goals can be discovered with the capabilities of semiotics. The book "Matrah al-Ayoun" is the first short story work in Egyptian societies, especially the Egyptian society, written by Muhammad Timur with a collection of short stories that express the social, moral, cultural and customs of the Egyptian people. The book cover design, with a combination of colors, letters, shapes and lines, can have a specific conceptual art of the book's content. Accordingly, the present study felt the necessity of a dual semiotic and paratextual analysis and exploration of the design on the cover of the short story collection "Matrah al-Ayoun" by contemporary Egyptian writer Muhammad Timur, in order to reach the content openings within the book's text beyond the specific conceptual art on the cover of the book in question. Therefore, the authors aim to achieve a correct understanding of the relationships between the main text and the design on the cover of the book in question with the help of a descriptive-analytical method. What doubled the necessity of this study; the following questions occupied the mind:
Research Question(s)
1- How does the paratext of the book cover design function in relation to the internal text?
2- To what extent does the book cover design have the power to convey the title and the author's goals?
3- Which of the design components is the most frequently used sign and symbol in the book cover design?
2. Literature Review
Many studies have been conducted on the semiotics of images and book cover designs, but no study has been conducted so far on the dual analysis of the semiotics of book cover designs with Gerard Genette's paratextuality theory in analyzing the relationships between images and text and in the statistical community under study. However, semiotic and paratextual studies that are largely close to the present study and have semantic affinity are as follows: Haghighi and Shairi (2019) analyzed the interaction and use of cartoons with linguistic terms using a visual semiotics approach and discourse analysis method and found that cartoons are able to transfer from an unpredictable space to a creative semantic space by conceptually developing the linguistic terms of English language learners. Hejazi and Fallah (2019) analyzed the semiotic-semantic meaning of “question” in some of Mohammad Reza Shafi’i Kadkani’s poems and found that the poems, relying more on the visual and auditory senses, provide a space for presence and discursive communication with the audience, and spaces for making the absent present and the absent absent, enable discursive interaction and reaching the “transcendent self.” Amina et al. (2018) examined the dependent and independent thresholds and paratexts in the divan “No One Raises the Wind in Cages” and found that the thresholds used in the divan in question are a mirror reflecting the internal text of the divan through social, psychological, and historical methods and conditions as the original creator of the divan, and the poet is considered the second creator and true owner of the work. Saghir (2017) studied the paratextual thresholds of the poem “Ghaim Man Ramad” and concluded that all the parallel, dependent and independent paratextual and marginal aspects of the poem in question largely reflect the internal content of the text and the poet’s intentions in composing the poem. Amiri et al. (2015) studied the semiotics of the poem “Bant Suad” and found that the poem reflects the poet’s fears and psychological anguish through the symbolic connotations that constitute the poem, and that there is a clear connection between the words and the content of the poem. Hemmati et al. (2014) studied the semiotics of the poem “Lamiat al-Arab” by Shanfari and found that semiotic analysis revealed the hidden beauties and hidden spiritual treasures of this poem, and the semiotic elements in this poem include: tribal environment, migration, the environment of wild animals, enduring hardships, and Shanfari’s specific literature.
3. Methodology
This study aims to examine the interplay of paratextuality and semiotics within the cover image of the short story collection Matrah al-Ayoun, employing a content analysis method.
4. Results
The analysis indicates that semiotics, with its diverse semantic capabilities across fields like visual art, color theory, and the interpretation of symbols and icons, can effectively discern a book's cover design and identify its layered semantic relationships as a paratext with the book's internal text. Furthermore, a book cover design is typically in harmony with the book's other components and the author's objectives. Each color, shape, line, and letter is designed to directly parallel the text, the book's other elements, and the author's goals. Without this alignment, the design would not be appropriately assigned to the book and its subject, nor would semiotics be able to effectively recognize its communicative layers as a paratext.In analyzing the Matrah al-Ayoun cover design, this research first employed semiotics to identify the practical aspects of the design by separating and studying its individual components. Subsequently, by discovering the meanings of each component—different colors, shapes, lines, and letters—the study could then access the layered signs within the book's text. Colors, for instance, were utilized in the book design based on their symbolic meaning and in accordance with the author's goals, with their semantic layers also being reflected within the book's text. Thus, a direct connection between each design component and the book's internal text can be established.The book's cover design—through elements such as the eye shape (implying an inner world), the letters 'M' and 'A', the foreground, the purple lines behind the eye resembling blood vessels, and the various background colors—collectively indicate the title Matrah Al-Ayoun and the author's experiences gleaned from the surrounding world. In essence, the design embodies the author's objective of experiencing life through observation, with various experiences narrated through distinct color palettes.Colors represent the most significant structural element of the design. Different colors, each associated with distinct symbols, envelop the entire design, are responsible for forming other design components, and possess the power to directly communicate with aspects of the text's internal content. Blue is the dominant color, followed by yellow, green, red, and black, respectively.
1. Introduction
Images themselves are capable of conveying themes, meanings and goals that, together with their constituent elements, will gain multiple narrative power. An image or design made up of shapes, letters, colors, lines, patterns and other components can fall into the realm of conceptual art. The image or design on the cover of a book can also be a conceptual art, meaningful and appropriate to the goals of the book's author and related to internal text of the book. The psychoanalysis of color and the examination of the psychological dimensions of the design components on the book cover are a reflection of semiotic patterns. Semiotics is a related system or network of hierarchically ordered, relations, and the sign is the game of separation, combination and limitation of deep structures beyond the superficial phonological and semantic structures. In general, semiotics can also be considered the science of signification, because the science of signification will understand the specific nature of each of the signer and the signified and their characteristics based on specifying the relationship between the signifier and the signified and the signifier is only able to refer to the linguistic sign by mentally accessing and discovering the content of the signified and is incapable of directly referring to the external signified. The science of signification or semiology can be called the science of achieving and discovering meaning and understanding. Accordingly, semiology is used as a research method in the two fields of recognizing significations and understanding relationships and is the path to recognizing the meaning or meanings of a work. Semiology is divided into three types: iconic, indexical, and symbolic. In the first type, the similarity of the sign with the subject is based, such as the image of a person or thing, and the second type is explained by symptoms of illness, signs of the arrival of a storm, etc., and the symbolic sign can be based on semiotic conventions. They align the iconic sign with the character (characteristic) or the main character of the subject and the implicit implications. On the other hand, the French theorist Gerard Genette, while studying the relationships between texts, arrived at the theory of transtextuality and introduced five categories as subcategories of transtextuality. Among the five categories of transtextuality, the component of paratextuality with its indicators is worthy of studying the design on the cover of the book. In this way, paratextuality, with the categories of dependent and independent paratexts, includes parallel texts of a book or the internal text of a book. Dependent paratexts can be introduced with main and sub-titles, introduction, table of contents, appendices, prefaces, end references, initial and final marginal texts of the book, and the design on the book's cover. Non-dependent paratexts can be introduced with interviews conducted about the book, promotional teasers of the book, and peripheral remarks about the book's criticism and analysis. All of these cases are considered peripheral texts of a book that have deep and parallel relationships between themselves and the main text of the book. Therefore, it is important to examine the design of a book cover with semiotic approaches in direct accordance with Gerard Genette's theory of paratextuality, because semiotics, with its ability to analyze and examine the signifier and signified, is able to achieve a correct understanding of the relationships between texts. So that the various relationships of the book cover design with the internal text as a paratext in retelling the internal content and the author's goals can be discovered with the capabilities of semiotics. The book "Matrah al-Ayoun" is the first short story work in Egyptian societies, especially the Egyptian society, written by Muhammad Timur with a collection of short stories that express the social, moral, cultural and customs of the Egyptian people. The book cover design, with a combination of colors, letters, shapes and lines, can have a specific conceptual art of the book's content. Accordingly, the present study felt the necessity of a dual semiotic and paratextual analysis and exploration of the design on the cover of the short story collection "Matrah al-Ayoun" by contemporary Egyptian writer Muhammad Timur, in order to reach the content openings within the book's text beyond the specific conceptual art on the cover of the book in question. Therefore, the authors aim to achieve a correct understanding of the relationships between the main text and the design on the cover of the book in question with the help of a descriptive-analytical method. What doubled the necessity of this study; the following questions occupied the mind:
Research Question(s)
1- How does the paratext of the book cover design function in relation to the internal text?
2- To what extent does the book cover design have the power to convey the title and the author's goals?
3- Which of the design components is the most frequently used sign and symbol in the book cover design?
2. Literature Review
Many studies have been conducted on the semiotics of images and book cover designs, but no study has been conducted so far on the dual analysis of the semiotics of book cover designs with Gerard Genette's paratextuality theory in analyzing the relationships between images and text and in the statistical community under study. However, semiotic and paratextual studies that are largely close to the present study and have semantic affinity are as follows: Haghighi and Shairi (2019) analyzed the interaction and use of cartoons with linguistic terms using a visual semiotics approach and discourse analysis method and found that cartoons are able to transfer from an unpredictable space to a creative semantic space by conceptually developing the linguistic terms of English language learners. Hejazi and Fallah (2019) analyzed the semiotic-semantic meaning of “question” in some of Mohammad Reza Shafi’i Kadkani’s poems and found that the poems, relying more on the visual and auditory senses, provide a space for presence and discursive communication with the audience, and spaces for making the absent present and the absent absent, enable discursive interaction and reaching the “transcendent self.” Amina et al. (2018) examined the dependent and independent thresholds and paratexts in the divan “No One Raises the Wind in Cages” and found that the thresholds used in the divan in question are a mirror reflecting the internal text of the divan through social, psychological, and historical methods and conditions as the original creator of the divan, and the poet is considered the second creator and true owner of the work. Saghir (2017) studied the paratextual thresholds of the poem “Ghaim Man Ramad” and concluded that all the parallel, dependent and independent paratextual and marginal aspects of the poem in question largely reflect the internal content of the text and the poet’s intentions in composing the poem. Amiri et al. (2015) studied the semiotics of the poem “Bant Suad” and found that the poem reflects the poet’s fears and psychological anguish through the symbolic connotations that constitute the poem, and that there is a clear connection between the words and the content of the poem. Hemmati et al. (2014) studied the semiotics of the poem “Lamiat al-Arab” by Shanfari and found that semiotic analysis revealed the hidden beauties and hidden spiritual treasures of this poem, and the semiotic elements in this poem include: tribal environment, migration, the environment of wild animals, enduring hardships, and Shanfari’s specific literature.
3. Methodology
This study aims to examine the interplay of paratextuality and semiotics within the cover image of the short story collection Matrah al-Ayoun, employing a content analysis method.
4. Results
The analysis indicates that semiotics, with its diverse semantic capabilities across fields like visual art, color theory, and the interpretation of symbols and icons, can effectively discern a book's cover design and identify its layered semantic relationships as a paratext with the book's internal text. Furthermore, a book cover design is typically in harmony with the book's other components and the author's objectives. Each color, shape, line, and letter is designed to directly parallel the text, the book's other elements, and the author's goals. Without this alignment, the design would not be appropriately assigned to the book and its subject, nor would semiotics be able to effectively recognize its communicative layers as a paratext.In analyzing the Matrah al-Ayoun cover design, this research first employed semiotics to identify the practical aspects of the design by separating and studying its individual components. Subsequently, by discovering the meanings of each component—different colors, shapes, lines, and letters—the study could then access the layered signs within the book's text. Colors, for instance, were utilized in the book design based on their symbolic meaning and in accordance with the author's goals, with their semantic layers also being reflected within the book's text. Thus, a direct connection between each design component and the book's internal text can be established.The book's cover design—through elements such as the eye shape (implying an inner world), the letters 'M' and 'A', the foreground, the purple lines behind the eye resembling blood vessels, and the various background colors—collectively indicate the title Matrah Al-Ayoun and the author's experiences gleaned from the surrounding world. In essence, the design embodies the author's objective of experiencing life through observation, with various experiences narrated through distinct color palettes.Colors represent the most significant structural element of the design. Different colors, each associated with distinct symbols, envelop the entire design, are responsible for forming other design components, and possess the power to directly communicate with aspects of the text's internal content. Blue is the dominant color, followed by yellow, green, red, and black, respectively.
Keywords: Semiotics, Pyrotechnics, Gerard Genet, Picture on the cover of the book, Matrah Al-Oyun, Mohammad Teymour
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