“Al-Jurh wa Al-Saffah” by Ammar Ben Laqrichi: An Interpretive Semiotic Approach in Light of Reception and Reading Theory

Abstract

This research is based on an interpretive semiotic approach to the text “Al-Jurh wa Al-Saffah” by the Algerian poet Ammar Ben Laqrichi, as it appears in his collection Maqam al-Ightirab (Dar Al-Rawa’i, Setif, 2015).

The article aims to deconstruct the deep structure of the text by tracing its textual thresholds, starting with the title, then the actantial schema, followed by the semiotic square, and moving on to rhythmic, symbolic, and rhetorical analysis, culminating in a philosophical interpretation.

The study also shows that the text is built upon a tense binary conflict between memory and forgetting, life and death, which reinforces the dramatic structure governing the overall trajectory of the poem.

The article concludes that “Al-Jurh wa Al-Saffah” is grounded in an existential–mystical vision, in which the wound becomes a counter-sign against the dominance of the executioner, and the word becomes an act of resistance that transcends oppression toward a horizon of symbolic immortality.