TITLE:
A Semiotic Reading of the Character Construction (Heroism) and the Significance in “Hayat” by Mohammad Ali Saeed
AUTHORS:
Mahmoud Jamal Rayan
KEYWORDS:
Semiotics, Heroic Significance, Central Personality, Antagonist, Intentionality, Action, Ideology, Socio-Culture and Anthropology
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Literary Study,
Vol.10 No.1,
December
9,
2021
ABSTRACT: This research is an interpretive study about the construction of the central character and the detection of the heroic role, and then the meaning and significance in “Hayat” by Mohammad Ali Saeed. The research has adopted an approach illustrated according to a semiotic model labeled as “the Cognitive Semiotic Model” (CSM). This model is concerned with determining the central character in line with textual control that passes through heroism and its quality, and then reaches meaning and significance. In so doing, the paper will pass over absurdity and incongruity and focus on building this work in its narrative process. Besides, the assumption is that reading this story as a model for the collection of Saeed’s stories, “Ahmed and Mordechai,” is somehow obligatory, since it approaches the two most important themes of the short story in general: the character and significance. It will be revealed that the central character is considered a “hero” according to the criteria that will be set in the course of the research. The character of “Ali al-Mahmoud” has constituted an important semiotic element in the development of the event, as it dominated the meaning while it is built till the end.