Semanalysis of Children's Picturebook of the "Celestial Stone" Based on the Abjection Theory

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Children ̓s and Young Adult Literature, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Semanalysis is a method composed of psychoanalysis and semiotics that Kristeva invented to study the subjectivity process. According to Kristeva, human is a divided subject made of two different dimensions of language: one is the masculine dimension of language, known as the symbolic, and the other is its feminine dimension, known as the semiotics. The process of signification (and, correspondingly, the process of subjectivity) begins with the abjection of the mother's body and the leaving of Chora. From the lexical point of view, Chora means the mother's womb, and from the conceptual point of view, it is the reservoir of semiotic matter and the physical place for the formation of the first signs. Language, as the embodiment of the symbolic, determines the boundaries of the subject's identity by withdrawing the semiotic; But the rejected semiotic does not disappear; Rather, in the form of "desire to return to Chora", it always keeps the boundaries of the speaking subject's constructed identity under threat. Kristeva considers the only channel to restore the feminine semiotic and return to the maternal Chora as "revolution in poetic language". Kristeva means this language revolution, defiance of the systems based on male symbolic. The picturebook "Celestial Stone" is one of the titles of the ten-volume series "The Bald Athlete and Her Horse Kori" written by Ms. Parirokh and illustrated by Ms. Keiqobadi (1400) for +8 age group. Based on this, I will use the qualitative content analysis method of comparative type, while re-reading the mentioned work on how the relationship between returning to maternal chora and relieving the depression of modern man. The result of the research shows that the modern subject, who is depressed due to the dominance of the symbolic dimension of language and the loss of maternal chora, can achieve balance by restoring the semiotic.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 29 October 2022
  • Revise Date: 06 May 2023
  • Accept Date: 15 May 2023

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