An Analytic Study of the Implicit Meanings in Tangsir

Semiotics is one of the theories of reading literary texts.  This theory systematically studies the causes and factors involved in the process of production and interpretation of the signs. One of the main topics in semiotics deals with implicit meaning wherein the scholars examine the implied significance of the signs in addition to their explicit significance. Sadegh Chubak’s Tangsir is one of the most successful contemporary Iranian literary novels. Most of the events in this fiction, characters, actions, scenes, and names have implicit and connotative meanings that by analyzing them, the underlying layers of the texts will be discovered. This study attempts to investigate the implicit significance of the novel. To this end, first, a brief explanation of semiotics and implicit significance is put forth. Then the implicit significance of Tangsir will be presented in three categories of: the anticolonial, sociological and mythical. The results of this study indicate that the implicit anticolonial significance of the novel raises the issue of the conspiracies of British colonialism in the southern regions of Iran. The sociological significance of the novel portrays a community drowned in misery, poverty, suppression, and oppression. And the mythical significance of the novel indicates the ritual of sacrificing a cow in Mithraism and the archetype of crossing water in myths.