Semiotics of the Dual Contradictions in the Verse "Ka’ab Girl" of Attar’s Elahinameh [With the Preference of "Confidentiality" and "Disclosure" Codes]

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 1, Volume 50, Issue 2 - Serial Number 197, September 2017, Pages 1-23   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v50i2.67970

Authors

nahid nasrazadani¹; hosain aghahosaini^{* 2}; saeid. Shafieioun²; sayedeh maryam rozatian²

¹Isfahan University

²University of Isfahan

Abstract

Introduction

The semiotics of double contradictions is the study of the network of present or absent symbolic elements in the text, directly and indirectly in opposition to each other, understood through the confrontation. In the structuralist method, influenced by the Roman-Jacobson pattern and more seriously found in Claudio-Strauss, any semiotic analysis leads to understanding and discovering the system dominating the story, roles, and value of the signs in it, through the relation of elements and based on specific codes.
The love story of "Ka’b’s Daughter" in Attar's Divine Masnavi contains implicit meanings and valuable concepts in the context of confrontation with the core of “secrecy” and “secret disclosure”, conveying the view and perception of the speaker to us. It also suggests a better induction of the concept of personality transformation in mysticism through secrets denial, showing the indescribability of mystical experiences.
 The study of structuralism in this narrative is a concept by which a single entity may appear in numerous ways. With this approach, regardless of the gestures that make such changes, one focuses on the implicit implications of a single idea.

Methodology

This article, in a descriptive-analytical and a constructivist approach, examines the semiotics of "double contradictions" with a focus on "denial" and "secret disclosure" in the poem "Ka’b’s Daughter". The subject includes the attempt to explore the implicit reciprocal relationship in the text, the proof of the aesthetics of Attar's mysticism and the pleasure of understanding it for the reader.

Discussion

The story of "Ka’b’s Daughter" is a fluid combination of romantic and mystical themes to fit in the second implication with the meanings of the mystical intention of Attar. In this parable, Attar relied on an unconventional expression of love in the virtual and apparent form, along with believing in denying the secrets of love.
The narrative of Ka’b’s Daughter is a complex plot, dealing with transformation, recognition, and painful facts with a linear narration and a specific beginning that after going through obstructions in the middle, ends in disaster.
The main hero is Ka'b's daughter (Zain al-Arab), whose opponent characters are named Harith (her brother) and Baktash (Harith’s servant). Although Ka'b's daughter has the subject of love in common with Baktash, the blame and humiliation of Baktash when revealing love and her attempt to conceal love is a step toward maintaining a "paradox of similarity and difference". This contrast from the viewpoint of secrecy semiotics in mysticism points to the principle of wonder, because pilgrimage and astonishment are two correlated truths.
Harith initially cherishes his sister, but confronts her with the disclosure of the mystery of her love. Harith is the stranger who becomes the greatest obstacle to this love mid-story, with traits of violence and frustration. She is confident in love, in contrast to a brother unfamiliar to the secrets of love. Baktash is a hero whose relationship (master and servant) with Harith is the first sign of the opposition between them. By reluctantly avoiding the beloved and leaving the mortal world behind, he enters the inexistence stage where love has secretly shown him. He is a confidant whose secrecy has evolved into secret-knowing and brought him closer to perfection. In this narrative, the inevitability of speaking alongside belief in silence and analyzing the subject in the context of human beings’ deeds leads to the superiority of the aspect of disclosure.
The study of mutual animal symbols proves natural manifestations and confronting concepts, equality of confidentiality and disclosure. In confrontation of the "fox and the lion", Ka'b's daughter is the lion in the meadow of truth: a confidant lover knowing the truth of salvation and difficulties, but Baktash, in her opinion, is a fox captive to the ego, ignorantly thrusted to the meadow of love. In the contrast to “twilight (wolf and lamb)”, the wolf hiding the lamb, and black and white hiding each other, allude to the heart hiding secrets and not revealing them to the stranger.
In aesthetics confrontations, such as the contrast between “the king and the pawn”, secret denial and courage of Ka'b’s daughter, which is the product of love, empowers her as a king on the chessboard of life, against whom the moon and the sun are but powerless pawns. In the confrontation of "distraught hair and property of population", the position of division is that of the mystic and one who does not come to obey. The heart of such a mystic is not allowed to the truth and the position of selves is from his truth and mercy, the highest position of which is the selves of selves. This is the state of a confident person to the secrets of divine, the mortal mystic in the position of inexistence. In confrontation of sun and moon, sun is the greatest star of heaven and earth, illuminating the earth every morning, dropping on the night. It possesses a distinctive feature of revealing, but moon’s light is borne by the sun. The moon shines its weaker light at night, so it has features of concealment and secrecy. In the contrast between "present and absent", presence is the consciousness on all creatures and ignorance of mysteries, and absence is the heart’s absence from all creatures and knowledge of secrets. In contrast between "candle and night", night in mysticism brings moments of pure love, and is the hoard of heavenly secrets of mystics. Candle in romantic literature shows the disclosure of secrets of love. In the confrontation between “pearl and shell”, shell is a sign of secrecy and hiding secrets in the heart of the mystic, and pearl is the mystery that is desirable if it is discovered by the diver (mystery confidants), keeping its value. In "flower and bud", complexity, roundness, privacy and latency are characteristics of the bud, as signs of secrecy and denial of mysteries, and flower is the symbol of opening and revealing of inner secrets.
Semantic contradictions include “injury and ointment”, where injury is the sign of disclosure of love and ointment is a sign of concealment. In "friends and strangers" contrast, friend is a mystic knowing the mysteries and stranger is distant to the secrets of love. In the contrast between "wisdom and insanity", wisdom is the power underlying knowledge and insists on the concealment of mysteries, and insanity is the language of sane of the insane throughout history for expressing some secrets. In opposition of “speech and silence” keeping the silence seems to be an opening to preserving the values and conditions of salvation and denial of mysteries in mysticism, but in truth, to say that there is secrecy that must be preserved, is an inevitable base to this principle.

Conclusion

The semiotic analysis of the Ka'ab Daughter's narrative from Attar's Elahinameh and the semiotic understanding of its meanings depend on the inclusion of its various linguistic and linguistic layers. In this story, the contrast between terrestrial and heavenly love provides a context for wide use of various confrontations with the focus of secrecy and disclosure of secrets, such as personality, semantic, and aesthetic conflicts, while understanding the theme in the context of earthly love is easier. Attar's narrative is in creating a story whose purpose is the escape and development of the characters of the story, mystical secrecy along expressing the theory of humanity and the indivisibility of human beings from the impact of cultural and social environment.

Keywords

Semiotics; Double Confrontation; Ka’ab Girl; Confidentiality; Disclosure

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