A Semiotic Representation of Arabic Literature

Arab writers have no other option but to deal with their harsh reality, shaped by non-stop wars, both as individuals and as a national collective. The differences between them are associated with the ways they represent their respective severe realities. This book continues the semiotic approach to literature, according to which literature is the art of representation. By this I mean that the whole “truth” is not limited to textual reality itself, but could be hidden in the way it is re-presented in a text. Semiotic representation is a productive approach, meant to produce meanings from techniques, devices, styles, structures, forms, modes and genres. Semiotics seems to be the most efficient discipline to connect “form” and “content” in a productive way. The key semiotic term involved in this insight is representation. We thus ask: How can we understand the way Arabic literature represents its agenda, whatever that may be?