Employing the actantial model and the semiotic square in analyzing a poetic text: A case study of “The Limits of Hope” by Nazik al-Mala'ika

Abstract

     This paper aims to identify how to employ the actantial model and the semiotic square in analyzing a poetic text. The research used Nazik al-Mala'ika’s poem “The Limits of Hope” as a model. The research analyzes the narrative component of the poem in a semantic analysis, and shows the juxtapositions, intersections in the texts, and the evolution of the movement of the narrative elements and their transitions from one angle to the other. In addition, the research studies the surface and deep contextual meanings of the forms of cases, events, factors and narrative transformations as well as exploring the connotations of the existing relationships among them.

     The semiotic approach is followed through analyzing the implicit and explicit structure of the poem, as it is concerned with intersemiotic relations, and the emergent meaning. The paper concludes with a number of results. Most notably, the paper argues that Nazik al-Mala'ika was able to form different worlds and spaces through the language that made this poem a symbol or a sign that needs sophisticated readers to decipher it. The paper also argues that semiotics plays an important role in making the latent meaning understandable, and it relies on structural analysis, but it focuses more on signs in the text.