تحلیل کنشی گفتمان هویت زنانه در رمان« بهشت» تونی موریسون براساس الگوی نشانه-معناشناسی گریماس (مقاله علمی وزارت علوم)
درجه علمی: نشریه علمی (وزارت علوم)
آرشیو
چکیده
رویکرد نشانه معناشناسی گفتمانی با تأکید بر ابعاد حسی ادراکی، عاطفی و زیبایی شناختی در یک گفتمان، محمل بسیار مناسبی برای تأویل، تحلیل و بررسی متونی بشمار می آید که نگره ها و مسائل هویتی در آن ها مطرح است. مطابق آموزه های نشانه معناشناسی گفتمانی، کنش گران می توانند با ایجاد و خلق جریان ها و چالش های درون گفتمانی همسو یا ناهمسو درخصوص مسئله هویت با جامعه و محیط اطراف خویش به تعامل بپردازند یا علیه آن طغیان نمایند و برای احراز هویت خویش و بازسازی آن تلاش نمایند و به دنیای آرمانی، تخیلی یا واقعی پناه جویند. در رمان « بهشت» اثر تونی موریسون به مثابه رمانی که در آن زنان سیاه پوست برای گریز از مشکلات و مصائب جامعه پیرامون و دستیابی به بهشت راهی «صومعه» شده اند، سوژه ها در راستای رسیدن به هویت ازدست رفته و تحقیرشده خویش و تقلایی ذهنی و بیرونی مداوم برای رهایی از بحران و تنش معنایی به مرکز ثقل گفتمان تبدیل می گردند تا بتوانند نقش خویش را در رابطه تقابلی یا تعاملی با دیگری (جامعه و...) ایفا نمایند. هدف از جستار پیشرو پاسخ به این پرسش است که در رمان بهشت، موضع گیری گفته پرداز چگونه به دستیابی هویت زنانه سیاه پوستان منجر می شود و این ویژگی باتکیه بر کدام یک از مؤلفه های نشانه معناشناسی گفتمانی حاصل شده است. یافته های پژوهش حاکی از آن است که گفته پرداز از طریق نشانه های نمادین، روابط فشاره ای و گستره ای، کنش سوژه، و وجه پدیدارشناختی حضور، به مسئله بحران هویت در رمان پسااستعماری خویش دست یافته است. در این میان «بهشت» به عنوان نشانه معنایی خیالی و ذهنی در نقش اتوپیا یا آرمان شهری رؤیایی که در آن از تبعیض نژادی خبری نیست کارکردی گفتمانی یافته است.An Actantial Analysis of Feminine Identity Discourse in Toni Morrison's Paradise Based on Greimas' Semio-Semantic Model
This study employs A. J. Greimas's actantial model from semio-semantic theory to investigate the construction of Black feminine identity in Toni Morrison's Paradise . The novel portrays a group of women who, marginalized by societal and racial pressures, seek refuge in a convent, thereby presenting a profound narrative on identity formation. This research aims to delineate how the characters' journeys and relationships function within a structured narrative grammar of quests, conflicts, and desires. By mapping the characters and their interactions onto the Greimasian actantial schema, the analysis reveals the deep semiotic structures underlying their identity struggles. The findings indicate that the women's liberation from existential crises is systematically articulated through their roles as actants, their pursuit of symbolic objects of value, and their opposition to a societal "Other." Ultimately, the convent is interpreted as a semiotically potent utopia—a discursive space where identity is reconfigured. This analysis concludes that Greimas's model provides a robust framework for deconstructing the complex narrative of identity within Morrison's postcolonial discourse. Introduction Toni Morrison's Paradise (1997) presents a profound exploration of identity, particularly the fractured and marginalized identities of Black women in a postcolonial context. The novel chronicles the lives of women who, seeking refuge from societal and racial trauma, converge in a convent, only to face violence from a patriarchal and purist Black community. This narrative intricately blends reality and fantasy, positioning the convent as a contested symbolic space—a potential "paradise" that is simultaneously a site of conflict. This study contends that the complex identity struggles within the novel can be systematically illuminated through A.J. Greimas' semio-semantic model. Greimas' actantial framework provides a robust analytical tool for deconstructing the deep narrative structures that govern character roles, relationships, and quests. By mapping the characters and their interactions onto this schema, the research moves beyond thematic analysis to expose the fundamental grammar of the narrative's identity discourse. Consequently, this paper aims to investigate how the actantial positions and discursive functions in Paradise articulate the Black female characters' journeys. It seeks to answer how their pursuit of a "valued object"—be it safety, identity, or liberation—is structured through their opposition to a societal "Other" and is mediated by the semiotic potency of the convent itself. The primary objective is to demonstrate the efficacy of Greimas' model in unraveling the intricate process of identity (re)construction in Morrison's work. Literature Review The theoretical foundation of this research is rooted in the semio-semantic discourse approach developed by A.J. Greimas. His seminal work, The Loss of Meaning , along with his structural semantics, provides the primary framework for analyzing narrative structures and meaning generation. The application and elaboration of Greimasian theory, particularly within the Iranian academic context, have been significantly advanced by scholars such as Hamidreza Shoeiri. His influential publications— Foundations of Modern Semantics (2002), Semio-Semantic Analysis of Discourse (2006), and Literary Semio-Semantics (2016)—along with his establishment of the Tehran Semio-Semantics Studies Circle, have been instrumental in promoting and disseminating this theoretical paradigm. Further enriching the domestic scholarly landscape, Morteza Babak Moein's Meaning as Lived Experience (2015) offers profound phenomenological insights into semio-semantics. Moreover, Ali Abbasi (2013), in his work Applied Narratology: Linguistic Analysis of Narrative , has dedicated significant sections to explicating Greimas's theories, bridging narratology with semio-semantic analysis. The continued relevance of this model is evidenced by contemporary research, such as the article by Babak Moein and Mohammadzadeh (2021), "Semio-Semantics of Discourse in Iran's Body Writing," which demonstrates the model's applicability to modern cultural texts. Internationally, prominent literary theorists have engaged with Greimas's structuralist narratology. Foundational works such as Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory , Raman Selden et al.'s A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory , and Robert Scholes's Structuralism in Literature all discuss Greimas's semio-semantic framework, situating it within the broader context of twentieth-century critical theory. This attention confirms the model's established position in global literary studies. By applying Greimas's actantial model and discourse analysis, this research provides a novel, systematic reading of Paradise . It illuminates the deep narrative structures that organize the Black female characters' quest for identity, thereby contributing a unique semio-semantic perspective to the existing criticism on Morrison's work. Research Methodology This study employs a qualitative, descriptive-analytical methodology grounded in the semio-semantic framework of A.J. Greimas. The primary data, derived from a close reading of Toni Morrison's Paradise , is analyzed through the systematic application of Greimas's actantial model. This approach facilitates a structural examination of the narrative, moving from the surface-level discourse to the deep semantic structures that organize the characters' quests for identity. The analysis is inherently inductive, aiming to derive theoretical insights about identity construction from the textual evidence itself, rather than imposing pre-existing conclusions. Ultimately, this method allows for a rigorous investigation of how narrative roles, functions, and values are constituted within the novel's discursive system. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the pursuit of identity in Toni Morrison's Paradise is structurally governed by the dynamics of Greimas's actantial model. The analysis reveals that the African American community's initial quest for a utopia, free from white oppression, becomes tragically reconfigured. The founding of the all-Black town of Haven (Hi-Yon) and later Ruby, intended as a valued object and sanctuary, ultimately replicates the very exclusionary and patriarchal violence it sought to escape. This internal failure of the utopian project forces a disconnection from the original object of value, propelling the marginalized women to seek refuge in the Convent. The narrative trajectory thus illustrates a profound shift: the community's action-oriented discourse transforms from a collective, prescriptive quest for salvation into a coercive system that violently targets its own most vulnerable members. Ultimately, the women's tragic fate underscores the semiotic complexity of "paradise," revealing it not as a geographical location, but as a contested discursive space where identity is both sought and violently denied.
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