Signs of Alienation and Their Semiotic Representations in the Works of Gibran Khalil Gibran and Elia Abu Madi: A Comparative Study

This study, entitled “Signs of Alienation and Their Semiotic Representations in the Works of Kahlil Gibran and Elia Abu Madi: A Comparative Study,” investigates the ways in which the experience of alienation is constructed in their texts through a network of signs and relationships, and how these signs are organized into a semantic structure that reveals the specificity of the experience in each poet’s work. The study aims to identify the most prominent spatial, natural, subjective, and temporal signs; analyze their functions and interrelationships; elucidate the semantic binary oppositions that contribute to constructing representations of alienation; and highlight the points of convergence and divergence between the two experiences. Its significance derives from combining the study of alienation with a semiotic approach, which makes it possible to move beyond identifying manifestations of alienation toward analyzing the signs that produce its meaning and the mechanisms through which they are organized within the text. The study adopts a semiotic approach, drawing also on the comparative method, and is structured around an introductory section and three main sections addressing spatial signs, natural signs, and subjective and temporal signs, with comparison incorporated throughout the analysis. The study concludes that alienation is constructed through an interconnected network of signs whose meanings are determined by their relationship to the self, the other, and the context. In Gibran’s work, space tends to constitute an alternative realm that accommodates the self and grants it freedom and protection, whereas in Elia’s work, it is associated with departure, separation from the original place, and the search for another horizon. Likewise, nature becomes, in Gibran’s work, an inner equivalent of the self, while in Elia’s work it becomes a mirror of wakefulness, wandering, and waiting. Gibran’s experience tends toward an existential and value-oriented horizon that invokes nature, love, and dreams, whereas Elia’s experience takes shape through fear, loneliness, anxiety, and searching. This highlights the distinctive poetic vision of each poet and the multiplicity of semiotic trajectories through which alienation manifests itself in their respective experiences.