The Semiotics of Passions between Simulated Desire and Possible Worlds

(Frankenstein's novel in Baghdad as a model)

Abstract

This thesis stems from the semiotics of Grimas and Fantoni in analyzing the passions in the Arabic Novel; Taking from the Frankenstein in Baghdad novel as a model for the study, by reconsidering the project of these two researchers according to Umberto Eco's concept of possible worlds, and according to René Girard's studies on the importance of adding the mediator in the actants model of Grimas based on a postulate that states that all desires are simulated desires. We were not limited by the procedural tools presented by the researchers in analyzing the passions, according to a actants model identified by Grimas previously in his studies on the semiotics of act. Rather, it went beyond that to consider the role of the mediator in this actants model, and his role in creating or transforming desires. It also discussed the role of possible worlds in shaping the phoric sketch, the transformations of the narrative programs that produce those sketchs, and the basic, deep structure of passions in the novel. Also, this structure was closely linked to the main theme or the message that the author was trying to convey about the "Gulf Crisis and Violence.