A Reading of Berber Poetry in Light of Textual Approaches with Semiotics as a Model

Abstract

Textual methodologies focus on the premise that the literary text constitutes an autonomous world—self-sufficient and internally coherent—deriving its significance from its own structures and internal systems rather than from external contexts or references. Unlike pre-textual critical approaches, which often relied on contextual or author-centered perspectives, textual approaches place the text itself at the core of inquiry, treating it as a communicative entity shaped by an intricate network of linguistic, aesthetic, and semantic relations that guide its interpretation. Modern critical thought has contributed greatly to this shift, most notably through structuralism, which seeks to uncover the internal architecture of the text—its phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic layers—and to understand how these elements interact to form the text’s overall system. Alongside structuralism stand theories that examine linguistic deviation within literary discourse in order to reveal the expressive and aesthetic traits that distinguish one writer’s style from another. Semiotics, the study of signs, further enriches this perspective by viewing the text as a constellation of signs that generate meaning through their relational patterns. In this study of Berber poetry, samples are analyzed with the aim of identifying semiotic signals and offering a renewed reading capable of revealing the subtle, often concealed indications that shape the aesthetic experience of the poem. Through a methodical, text-based reading, we trace signs, symbols, and underlying meanings to uncover the hidden layers and ambiguous connotations embedded within the poetic discourse.