چكيده لاتين
Semantics-semiotics is an approach within semiology that focuses on actants and their interactions, examining the process of meaning production and the transformation of values in narrative texts. In this approach, action is not only the driving force that moves the narrative from its initial to final state, but also the generator of values and the mechanism through which the characters’ identities are redefined, while the change in characters plays a complementary role.
The Arabic novel “A Mask the Color of the Sky” (Qinā‘ bi-Lawn al-Samā’) by Bassem Khandaqji by Bassim Khandaqji (born 1983), which won the 2024, winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Arabic Booker Prize), was selected for this study because its narrative structure is based on the transformation of the main actant, allowing an in-depth examination of how actions interact with value and discursive systems. The novel contains a set of value-oriented actions and semiotic situations that, while transforming the main character, create a dynamic discursive system encompassing actantial, pathemic, perceptual, sensory, and aesthetic elements.
In the novel, the main actant, after experiencing an initial value deficit within a distinguished pathemic state, engages in a process of meaning creation through aesthetic and phenomenological relations, as well as through other discursive dimensions. His confrontation with value objects leads him to perform actions that are unprecedented in his prior experience—actions that ultimately contribute to the reconstruction of his essential identity and values.
The significance of this study lies in its semiotic–actantial analysis of the novel, which enables an exploration of the mechanisms of meaning formation, the transformation of values, and the representation of identity at the narrative level. It also fills a research gap by examining this novel from the perspective of discursive systems.
The methodology in this study is based on a textual analysis of the novel through the framework of actantial semantics and semiotics, and the actantial and pathemic axes of the protagonist and their relations with other narrative elements is examines to clarify the mechanisms of meaning formation and value transformation. Accordingly, various discursive systems—such as action-oriented, value-oriented, perceptual–sensory, aesthetic, and ideological systems—are identified and analyzed.
The findings indicate that the protagonist’s actions, through confronting the initial value deficit, lead to the reconstruction of the value-based identity and transformation of the discursive system of the novel and a Becoming with a complementary role reinforces the semantic and value interactions of the character. Thus, “A Mask the Color of the Sky” stands as a prominent example of a narrative text that, through the centrality of action, coherently and structurally reflects the process of meaning formation and identity representation.
