Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Ph.D. student in the Department of Persian Language and Literature, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Roland Barthes, a prominent philosopher and semiotics theorist, by proposing the four cultural, semantic, symbolic, and hermeneutic codes, transfers text interpretation from a closed level of meaning to a level of open-ended semiotics. In light of Barthes' theory, the introduction of Golestan can be seen as an "open text"; a text where meaning is generated not in the author's intent but in the process of reading and the interaction of codes. This research aims to provide a philosophical-semiotic reading of the introduction to Saadi's Golestan based on Roland Barthes' theoretical framework; in such a way that through the analysis of oppositions and semiotic codes, the structure of meaning advances from the level of rhetorical description to the level of language philosophy and ontology. The research method is descriptive-analytical and based on textual interpretation and analysis, meaning the introduction is examined through Barthes' code analysis approach, and each section is interpreted via cultural, semantic, symbolic, and hermeneutic classifications. This analysis, by comparing the rhetorical and philosophical layers of the text, shows how religious language transforms into existential and social language. The research findings indicate that Saadi in the introduction of Golestan uses the traditional rhetorical system to create a philosophy of meaning: self, gratitude, and blessing at the beginning form the structure of the life and awareness cycle; nature and divine grace in the middle connect language through divine creation; and finally, by praising the emir and deciding to compose the book, meaning transfers from the poet’s individual seclusion to the cultural and social system.
Keywords
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