A Semiotic Survey of Bilateral Elements as a Portrayal in Rumi's Poetry

Structural semioticians believe that bilateral contrasts are signifying elements which shape a text’s concealed structure; while their analysis makes the interpretation and paraphrase of meaning a possible task. Binary elements, which according to linguistics, psychology, and structural anthropology are factors of cognition and comprehension, have found a variety of different expressions and manifestations in cultural texts; whether they are in written form within literary works or have appeared in the visual and auditory arts. A survey of the variety of bilateral contrasting elements that the author has used, in addition to the manner in which they are processed, show the stylistics of the work; just as the semiotic study of binary elements in the depiction and portrayal of Rumi’s poetry show that: 1) All the objective and subjective bilateral contrasts which somehow instil ascension or descent are utilized for expressing materialistic and spiritual affairs and phenomena. 2) All the bilateral contrasts are finally united in a specific point and their contradicting identity is resolved. 3) Negation of contradictory identity from bilateral contrasts occurs through rhetorical and declarative devices which once categorized, guides us towards semiotic description of Rumi’s poetry in Massnavi and Shams Poetry Book (known in Persian as “Divane Shams”)