The Application of Greimas Narrative Semiotics Theory in the Analysis of Surface and Deep Structures of Rostam and Ashkobus Story in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh

Document Type : Original Article

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Persian Language and Literature

10.22034/lda.2025.144806.1115

Abstract

Abstract
The narrative of Rostam and Ashkobus in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is a surrealistic and unique narrative. This valuable narrative is noticeable and worthy of attention because of its intra-structural and extra-structural components as well as the process of creating its perfect sketch. With a skillful arrangement of actors, the narrator has depicted the narrative with unparalleled elegance in its context of events, and then brought each of them into the field by creating contextually controversial complications according to their nature and personality. Consequently, its events can be analyzed through literary theories, including the actantial model of semiotics and narrative semantics, and achieve useful results by relying on its flexible grammar. Drawing on library research, document analysis, and a descriptive/analytic approach, the present study is an attempt to examine the story of Rostam and Ashkobus based on the model of the above-mentioned activist in order to penetrate the infrastructure of this narrative by paying attention to the meaningful discourse of its actors and also reveal novel meanings of the generative deep-layers within the rich discourse of this surreal and confrontational story from the structures of its surface and deep narrative plot.
Key terms: Greimas' Actantial Model, Narrative Semiotics, Discourse Analysis, The Story of Rostam and Ashkabus.

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