Manifestations of violent passions in the novel (You Are My Galaxy) by the novelist Farah Sabri, a semiotic study

Abstract

The semiotics of passions emerged as a main branch of the semiotics of action, focusing on physical reactions and psychological states that contribute to the formation of meaning and to signification in the literary text. As for the semiotics of violent passions in particular, it constitutes a sub-branch that applies the semiotics of passions, and is reflected in how these passions are embodied in the novel “You Are My Galaxy” by Farah Sabri, such as anger, hate, sadness, fear, and others, by tracing the production mechanisms of transformations and changes in narrative programs, that generate passions by employing a Greimasian and Fontanille semiotic approach; to study the violence crisis and its effect on the characters, by focusing on two components: tension and emotional components. My study consisted of an introduction and two chapters, concluded with the most significant results found. The introduction included a concise overview of semiotics and the general concept of passions, followed by a survey of the broad outlines of the concept of violent passions in references and dictionaries. In the first chapter, the study focused on the title’s semiotic significance, since it represents the first key to uncovering the depths of the text and serves as an interpretive entry point. The second chapter was devoted to analyzing the representation of passions in the novel—anger, hate, and sadness—and their reflections on the characters. Finally, the study was concluded by highlighting the main findings, emphasizing that perfection belongs only to Allah.