Existential Semiotic Analysis of the Discourse; Case study, Sadegh Hedayat's Dash Akol

Adopting an analytical semiotic approach to literature, the present study surveys the presence of agents and the type of their existence in the meaning formation process. We analyze Dash Akol a story by Sadegh Hedayat. The story centers on the focal character of Dash Akol and his actions in the surrounding context. In fact, in the course of the story, the agent confronts crises which make him leave or negate a former condition to attain a new one. The study mainly aims to analyze the trend of emergence and movement of the main agents in the story based on the existential semiotic theory. In existential semiotics, the agent who feels a gap leaves the Dasein (being-this) and negates the present conditions, thus moving toward an affirmative situation. The study seeks to investigate the existential function of negation and affirmation in the discourse of Dash Akol in order to explain the conditions for meaning production and passing the presence crisis. The main research question is: how do negation and affirmation as two significant discoursal elements affect the existential process of the discourse?