From the Desire for Destruction to Collapse: The Intertwining of the Modal Competences and the Deficiency of Meaning in Advancing the Discourse System of Resistance in The Land of Sad Oranges

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Semnan University

2 Faculty member, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Semnan University

10.22103/jrl.2025.25916.3079

Abstract

One of the key narrative elements in the socio-semiotic approach is the deficiency or crisis of meaning, which arises from the disruption or annihilation of the competences of modal verbs within the actional system. In fact, when these modal competences in the actional system are disturbed or destroyed, a semantic deficiency emerges. If the subject succeeds in restoring the competences of these modal verbs, the deficiency is resolved; however, if all competences are lost, the subject collapses. Examining this process reveals how modal competences occupy the center of narrative operations, creating deficiencies that alter existing actions and drive the process of semantic transformation. Ghassan Kanafani’s The Land of Sad Oranges abounds with modal verbs that generate deficiencies and narrative shifts. The successive loss of fundamental verbs such as to want and to be able to leads to the emergence of new deficiencies, forming a chain of loss that diverts the narrative movement from its purposeful course toward crisis and eventual collapse. This paper, through a descriptive–analytical method, seeks to explain the discourse of resistance in line with the author’s intent to expose the betrayal of the international community and the double standards of Arab countries. The study analyzes the story by focusing on the function of modal verbs and examines the meanings that arise from the formation of multiple deficiencies and their impact on the existing actional system. The analysis demonstrates that, with the arrival of the Zionists, the narrator in the story loses his modal competences and becomes subject to deficiencies imposed by them. These successive deficiencies generate a chain of actions such as the struggle for survival and the preservation of identity. Each deficiency gives rise to a new one, and the narrator gradually loses all modal competences, leading to his ultimate collapse.

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References

References[In Persian]
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Journal of Resistance Literature
Volume 17, Issue 33
February 2025
Pages 127-146

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