Semiotics of Narrative Elements in Mystical Narratives

Semantics examines, analyzes, interprets and understands the signs of the text systematically. Coding is one of the basic features of mystical narratives. It has been tried, in present study, to decode and interpret narratives, to realize the text and to understand its narrative functions, referring the semiotics of narrative elements in three authentic and influential works of Persian literature:  Kashf-ul-Mahjoob, Resalat al- Qusheyriyyeh and Tazkirat al-Awliyā. One of the most effective approaches to semiotics, which is consistent with the horizons of mystical narratives, is the approach used by Charles Sanders Peirce. Through his approach, considering its focus on interpretation and its emphasis on referential functionality of the signs, the narrative elements have been examined in mystical stories of three mentioned works. These elements include characters, contrast and opposition, impulse and association, point of view, and timing arrangement. The most important feature of narrative signs is their coherence with contrast and opposition, something that can be attributed to an experience of the Holy Affairs. This coherence is also a way through which the confrontation to formal and apparent thoughts happens to show that this type of religious experience and mystical conduct is what makes mental development and spiritual transformation possible. Accordingly, anti-narrative disclosure and negative elements and characters have been explained in the structure of narratives.