Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Ph.D. Candidate of Linguistics, , Department of English Language and Literature, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad university, Ilam, Iran
2
Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad university, Ilam, Iran.
Abstract
The discourse semiotics paradigm, emphasizing the sensory-perceptual, emotional, and aesthetic dimensions, offers a robust framework for interpreting, analyzing, and examining texts that grapple with identity-related concerns. Within discourse semiotics, agents actively engage with or resist their sociocultural contexts in addressing identity issues. This dynamic interplay is pivotal in their endeavors to construct and reconstruct their identities, frequently propelling them toward safe havens, whether idealized, imaginative, or actual. In Toni Morrison's novel Paradise, which depicts black women escaping societal challenges by retreating to a "monastery," these subjects become focal points within the discourse as they strive to reclaim their lost and marginalized identities. Their persistent internal and external struggles for liberation from existential and semantic crises delineate their roles amid the complex interrelations of conflict and interaction with the 'Other'—that is, society and its constructs. This study primarily seeks to elucidate how the dialogic positioning within Paradise facilitates the acquisition of Black women's identities and to identify the discourse semiotic components that underpin these transformations. The findings suggest that the narrators, through symbolic signs, relational dynamics, and phenomenological aspects of presence, navigate the identity crises embedded within their postcolonial narrative. In this context, Paradise emerges as a semiotic representation of an imaginary and cognitive utopia, wherein racial discrimination is conspicuously absent, thereby serving a significant discursive function.
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