Analysis and Criticism of the Novel "War in the Land of Egypt" From the Point of View of Social Semiotics

Social semiotics is an applied approach to the study of texts whose primary concern is the understanding of social signs and meaningful behaviors. A structuralist look at social novels and an examination of the constituents and decoding of texts can provide a better and more complete understanding of it. “War in the Land of Egypt” is Yusuf alQa'id's pithy novel, who is one of the eminent contemporary writers of Egypt and a prominent Arab novelist, in which he addresses the unfortunate and inappropriate conditions of his society that is under heavy oppression. This study intends, by using the analyticaldescriptive method in light of Pierre Guiraud’s approach, to analyze the social signs used in this novel and reveal the theme of the author's message. The results show that signs related to identity, such as nicknames and names, occupations and status of individuals in society, signs of etiquette such as the tone of the speech, the gestures and moods of the novel's characters, as well as fashion codes such as clothing and cuisine, all attest to the confrontation of human beings with each other and social disorder that afflicts the community of that day in Egypt. The author's use of text coherence tools, especially lexical tools, is also an emphasis of his intention regarding this matter. In this essay, the efficacy of using social codes and signs in conveying the novel’s motif to the reader is proven.