The Generation of Meaning in Multi-Textual Structure of Golestan

Sa'di's Golestan consists of short and independent texts (folktales, sayings, and verses). For the sake of analysis, it could be wondered how such a multi-textual writing could be investigated as a meaningful whole. Thus, the study aims to analyze the generation of meaning through investigating the different discursive structures and the core of meaning in the ultimate deep structure. To this aim, it is argued that the narrative structure (micro and macro) is responsible for the objectification of the abstract and logical units of meaning, expressed through sayings and supra-temporal and supra-spatial statements. The structure of the non-narrative parts (sayings) is substitutional and abstract, while the structure of the narrative parts is collocational and concrete. The overlapping of the semantic units of these two levels shows a semi-symbolic and binary shift from the "depletion condition" to the "Golestan condition". Therefore, Golestan is a value-laden condition, the semantic generation of which, in its discursive level, includes all of the previous semantic levels.