The Semiotics of Title in Ahmed Matar’s Poetry

Among the numerous approaches in criticizing literary works literary semiotics could be mentioned that is considered a branch of science of signs and studies a certain group of verbal texts. This science could be applied on titles of literary works including poetry because poem’s title indicates themes that the poet is trying to express. So, title’s semiotics could reveal the hidden and underlying layers of the concepts concealed behind the words. The present study with a descriptive-analytic method has dealt with studying selected titles of Ahmed Matar’s poems from semiotics perspective. In this article, along with a concise definition of semiotics and title eight odes from Ahmed Matar’s poem collection, Lafat, has been studied and the principles which the poet has benefitted from in employing title and expressing his views has been explained by drawing diagram. The results of this research indicate that Ahmed Matar’s titles have certain qualities. Among the most important ones the application of paradoxes, quotations from Quran, quotations from prophetic hadiths, borrowing from global heritage, recalling Arabic heritage, and number usage could be mentioned.