The Surface Structure in Maqbool Al-Alawi’s Novel Ziryab: A Semiotic Study

Abstract

This research seeks to explore the discursive and narrative components of Maqbool Al-Alawi’s Novel Ziryab. It contains an introduction, two sections, and a conclusion. The first section is entitled: ‘The Narrative Component’, while the second section is entitled: ‘The Discursive Component’. The researcher used the narrative semiotic approach. The most important conclusion is that the process of the researcher’s investigation of meaning begins from the narrative component to the discursive component, which helps to control the formal paths that serve as thresholds through which the researcher leads to familiarity with the fundamental connotations that constitute the text’s texture and give it its semantic coherence. The success of Ziryab, the main actor in the novel, created movement in the text, and the pictorial paths associated with it are represented by the narrative program that revolves around two basic axes: getting rid of slavery and achieving the dream of fame. Ziryab established a group of narrative programs with multiple pictorial paths.