Jordanian Journal of Arabic Language And Literature

The Semiotics of the Title in the Works of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī

2025-11-02T18:25:08+03:00

This study examines the semiology of the title in Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī’s (d. 764 AH / 1363 AD) work. He is one of the prominent figures of the 18^th century AH, who left behind him an encyclopedic legacy in literature, history, and linguistics. The research assumes that the title functions as a textual threshold with semantic and aesthetic significance that operates beyond its identifying role to act as a guide for reception and a shaper of the reader’s horizon of expectation.

The study aims to reveal the linguistic and stylistic structures of al-Ṣafadī’s titles. It intends to analyze their syntactic patterns and rhetorical mechanisms, and highlight their cultural symbols and artistic connotations, which reflect both the spirit of the age and the author’s creative sensibility. The researcher employs a semiotic-analytical methodology that combines close textual reading with cultural interpretation to uncover the functions of the title as a parallel text containing a network of multiple signs and meanings.

The study concludes that al-Ṣafadī transformed the title into an independent creative structure that unites rhythmic harmony, structural beauty, and symbolic depth through the variation of syntactic forms (binary, ternary, quaternary, and quinary) and the use of rhyme, paronomasia, and structural balance. The findings indicate that al-Ṣafadī’s titles are miniature texts saturated with symbols, performing evocative and promotional functions, and serving as artistic and semantic gateways to the worlds of his larger works.

The Names of the Wind by for Khalawayh: A Semantic Study in Light of Analytical Theory

2025-10-15T07:22:15+03:00

This study examines “Names of the Winds” for Ibn Khalawayh from the perspective of the analytical theory to reveal the cultural dimensions of the names of the wind, in a semantic conception that clarifies the relationship between language, environment, and culture among Arabs, and to identify those features in terms of their stability, change, or recurrence. It intends to identify the semantic pattern of naming the wind according to Ibn Khalawayh, and the features that distinguish it. The study employs a descriptive-analytical method, applying the principles of analytical semantics and pragmatic dimensions to understand and name the winds. Results of the study show naming as a historical document reflecting the linguistic awareness among the Arabs in naming wind terms, and as an early foundation of semantic field theory. It also emphasizes the importance of integrating lexical, contextual, and cultural information in classifying and analyzing word meanings.

A Psychological Analysis of the Duality of Life and Death in the Literature of Tayeb Salih (A Reading of Eros and Thanatos in Season of Migration to the North)

2025-11-04T12:54:55+03:00

This study examines the binary conflict between Eros and Thanatos in Tayeb Salih's novel, Season of Migration to the North. Eros, however, represents the necessary energy resulting from the proper satisfaction of instincts, whereas Thanatos arises from their neglect, leading to self-destruction. The research employs psychoanalytic criticism to analyze the novel's issues, based on the premise of human instincts, which Freud considered as the foundation of balance or imbalance that manifested in the literary work through the conflict between Eros and Thanatos.

The theoretical framework is based on Freudian psychoanalysis, specifically the concepts of Eros (the life drive) and Thanatos (the death drive) as primary engines of psychic energy and human behavior. The study hypothesizes that the conflict between these two forces can explain the existential contradictions within the novel. Through this framework, the analysis investigates how these drives manifest in the novel's characters and events.

The findings reveal that narrative and plot elements, while being influenced by the feminine (Eros), simultaneously advance into a space of ambiguity, absurdity, and meaninglessness (Thanatos). This indicates that the novel embodies a complex conflict between the forces of life and creativity on one hand, and death and destruction on the other hand, which is reflected in the text's structure and trajectory.

Chromatic Semiotics in Samihah Khreis’s Novel Fustuq ‘Abeed

2025-10-07T09:22:00+03:00

This study aims to analyze the semiology of color in narrative discourse as verbal-visual signs that convey psychological, cultural, and aesthetic meanings beyond their descriptive function. The study focuses on the role of color in constructing meaning and shaping the fictional world. It hypothesizes that color in the novelistic text is not merely decorative or ornamental, but rather constitutes a complex sign system, which contributes to meaning-making. This deepens the character's psychological structure and reveals the symbolic and ideological dimensions of the narrated world.

The research methods involve a critical analysis of Fustuq Abeed, a novel published in 2016 by the Jordanian author Samihah Khreis. The theoretical framework of the study integrates narrative semiotics, psychology, and cultural anthropology. The results show that colors such as black, white, blue, and yellow are used to represent conflicts of identity, freedom, and colonialism. Furthermore, color operates as a parallel semiotic system within the text, interacting with other narrative systems to produce a rich, multilayered discourse that enhances the novel’s symbolic depth

The Characteristics of Sufism in Yahya al-Qaisi’s Novel, the Forbidden Paradise

2025-11-19T07:50:43+03:00

This study examines the characteristics of Sufism in Yahya Al-Qaisi's novel Al-Firdaws Al-Muharram (The Forbidden Paradise) through analysing the language of Sufism in the text and its relationship to the fantastical and magical elements in the novel. It aims to reveal how the novel employs the mystical experience to reproduce religious and spiritual symbols, thereby presenting a metaphysical vision of man's journey in his quest for higher knowledge and spiritual absolutes.

The study employed a critical-analytical methodology grounded in semiotics and narrative theory. It decoded the symbolic system underlying the mystical discourse and examines how the interplay between Sufi tradition and contemporary narrative imagination generates multiple layers of meaning.

The findings indicate that the Sufi figures, such as Yusuf al-Majdhūb, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī, and Shaykh al-Muḥibbfunction as semiotic constructs representing spiritual awareness and metaphysical revelation, while the female characters, such as Amal and Patty, signify divine love, existential liberation, and cross-cultural spirituality. Furthermore, the incorporation of fantastic, marvelous, scientific, and surrealistic elements expands the novel’s metaphysical horizon beyond material reality, inviting a deeper philosophical and spiritual contemplation.

The Impact Value of Affective Speech Acts in the Self-Elegy Poetry of Malik Ibin Al-Rayb

2025-11-30T09:22:25+03:00

This descriptive analytical study examines the construction of affective speech acts in self-elegy poetry among Arabs, specifically in Malik Ibn Al-Rayb’s lament for himself using John Austin’s speech act theory. It seeks to reveal the strength and sincerity of emotion in self-elegy poetry, on the one hand, and to validate the persuasive value associated with that emotion, on the other. This study attempts to uncover the patterns of persuasive actions that corresponded to the theme of self-elegy that had an impact on the construction of the poetic discourse related to this purpose. The study consists of two parts, as the first one discusses the lament for the self and its affective value, whilst the second part illustrates the common patterns of affective actions in lament for the self-poetry.

The results of the analysis indicated that sincere emotion has a clear presence in self-elegy poetry stemming from a genuine and honest situation that does not allow for evasion or pretense. It also found that the most significant forms of affective acts in self-elegy poetry are interrogation, imperative, lamentation, repetition, and invocation.