Dr. Hakim Arif
Nowadays semiotics, a scientific study of signs and it’s relation to society, plays an important role in literary analysis in the western world. Literature, as semiotics considers, is a creative activity making a special form of communication with the readers. In fact, in a literary contribution, the writer tries to send a message to the reader through his/her literary work that is considered a way of meaning-making process or signification in semiotics. Compared to the other literary forms poetry is typically regarded as an ambiguous text since it is made with different literary terms like simile, metaphor, figurative arts, and rhetorical concepts along with its content. Thus, semiotics can act as a tool to interpret the structure of a text and decipher its hidden meaning which makes a deep connection between the reader and the text.
In course of time, a thousand-year-old Bangla literature houses versatile genius litterateurs along with Tagore who won Nobel Prize for his legendary literary work Gitanjali in 1913. They wrote a lot of masterpieces and contributed in many ways to give it an uplifting position in the world literary arena. Nowadays as one of the biggest living languages of the world Bangla also tries to maintain such a distinct position in the field of literary creation and criticism practiced both in Bangladesh and India.
Of the diverse forms of Bangla literature, poetry is being treated as the most popular as well as richest stream both in Bangladesh and West Bengal – a Bengali speaking province of India. In the Bangladeshi poetry-sphere, there is a continuous flow of practicing poetry by numerous poets. Except for Samsur Rahman and Al Mahmud, two prime poets of the country, Mahboon Hasan can easily be mentioned as a member of the prominent ones. Mahboob Hasan, a poet of the 1970s in Bangladesh, is writing poetry from the perspective of different literary styles as well as the angel to depict the complex life patterns and a view of the un-attainments of Bangladeshi people. This paper provides an in-depth semiotic analysis of Mahboob’s poems which ultimately unveils his typical characteristics with special reference to the text and structural treatments.
1. Semiotics and Literature: A view
In semiotics, literature is treated as ‘the second-order semiotic system’ which emphasizes the structure of language as its basic component (Culler, 132: 2002). This is because in semiotic interpretation the structure of language turns into a poetic signification in two ways for instance ‘denotation’ and ‘connotation’. In the denotative process, the signifier and the signified of a linguistic sign together express an ordinary meaning that is usually found in the dictionary and everyday usage as well. But in the connotative signification which is usually shaped in the literary works and other creative texts like cinema, art, photography literary language needs to add cultural aspects and the feeling or emotions of the creators when they try to provide symbolic meaning to it (Fiske, 86: 1997). Roland Barthes, a semiotic analyst and a true structuralist, proposes these two orders of significations where denotation exists in the first order of a literary text, and connotation relates to its second order. Put elaborately, when a litterateur creates a literary form, such as poetry, s/he includes different cultural elements of a given linguistic system along with the texture of literary figures in the signifiers of linguistic signs. Thus, to uncover the inherent meaning of this literary form the readers need to apply some extra-linguistic elements of the given cultural system. As Veivo (73: 2001) reflects, ‘Literary texts are open to indeterminacy in several aspects. The information indicated by the text must be supplemented and complemented by the knowledge of the reader derives from his or her own experiences’.
Peircean concept of sign reveals that a literary text acts as a mediator between the reader’s mind and the socio-cultural as well as material reality in a temporal continuum within the common experiential ground and conventions that can be viewed in the following diagram:
READ————————TEXT————————–CULTURE
|
CONVENTION
(Common Ground)
Figure 1: The structural representation of a literary text by Parret (1983) 1
Thus, this process of signification or unveiling the hidden meaning of creative works like literature is called connotation that possesses second order in semiotic signification. In fact, to understand a literary text with its contextualized and symbolized meaning, one should be familiar with the given linguistic signs first of all. Then s/he needs to learn various literary terms used in the text and finally the reader is to be experienced with specific extra-linguistic sign-elements such as cultural conventions, values, attitude, and customs of the given linguistic system. If s/he can gain the ability to interpret all aforesaid cultural sign process, s/he attains specific expertise that is termed as ‘literary competence’ by Jonathon Culler (Culler, 131: 2002).
Words incorporated in the term ‘literary competence’ and identified as linguistic signs of a given language are commonly considered primary elements. These are also called cardinal sign vehicles of a semiotic system which relate to the cultural conventions to make meaning in numerous ways. Semiotics extracts the inner structure of these sign-vehicles in the forms of the signifier, signified, referent, object, etc. Thus, it helps the readers of literature understand the meaning and other elements of a text. In addition to this, a semiotic explanation can be applied in literary analysis to find out structural as well as post-structural treatment. As Culler (8: 2001) states, ‘Semiotics has, in general, claimed that the study of literature ought to be above all an investigation of the ways and means of literary signification’. Here the term ‘literary signification’ denotes a process to interpret the literary elements and make the meaning of literary works. As semiotics is mainly based on the structure of linguistic signs and also discusses other secondary sign systems of society like literature from the perspective of a structural point of view, it is considered as a metalinguistic treatment. In this sense, it investigates the structure of language and linguistics of literature. In light of this direction Culler (ix: 2001) also expresses, ‘Semiotics is a metalinguistic enterprise. It attempts to describe the evasive, ambiguous, paradoxical language of literature in a sober, unambiguous metalanguage’. After all, semiotics helps us know the condition and characteristics of ‘the knowledge about the language of (metalanguage) of literature. Put elaborately, it provides the structure of linguistic signs, rhetoric treatments, and cultural interpretation of literary works. Hence, semiotics tries to give an objective analysis and a structural view of a literary work.
Again, as far as literary interpretation is concerned, the motto of semiotics is to show a specific signification process of signs used in a given literary text. To identify this signification process, it is expected to create a syntagmatic relation of these signs taken from the respective paradigmatic set, so that people can make poetic communication with it. Here the terms ‘paradigmatic’ and ‘syntagmatic’ demand a further explanation to make clear conceptions. First, the term ‘paradigmatic’ means non-ordered relation of any kind of sign that usually exists in the world in a horizontal alignment. On the other hand, the ‘syntagmatic’ relation indicates the ordered relation of these signs collected from the paradigmatic set in vertical alignment to create a view of signification. One example can be cited here to clearly show the treatment of these two concepts. Suppose there is an urge to make a building in a community with the materials like concretes (pieces of break or stone), rod, sand, cement, and so on already exist in the world in a scattered manner. Such scattered manner of the building materials can be termed paradigmatic or unordered relation. Now to make this building first of all we have to sort out these materials and mix them maintaining a gradual order and sequence like ‘concretes → sand → cement →rod’ which finally gives rise to its visual structural shape. This ordered or sequential arrangement of building materials is regarded as syntagmatic relation. In this sorting process, everyone enjoys the freedom to change the forms of elements used to make a building; for example, we can choose concrete of stone in place of the break or white cement instead of the ordinary one. If it is followed, the creation will be different from the first one. Semiotics describes all sorts of creative activities along with literary ones, especially poetry which is created following both syntagmatic and paradigmatic mechanisms. More specifically, poetry, the most complex example of literary works, is generated when the process of syntagmatic relation of linguistic signs are performed by the poet.
2. Text and structure of Mahboob Hasan’s poetry
2.1 An overview of the poet
A thirty-year duration is enough for a poet to become popular among the readers and be experienced to express his/her poetic diction and depth that Mahboob Hasan has already achieved in the poetry-circle of Dhaka, Bangladesh – one of two epicenters of modern Bangla Language and Literature along with Kolkata, India. In his book MAHBOOB HASANER KOBITA (A Collection of Poem by Mahboob Hasan) (2002), Hasan mentions that his poetry-period counts around thirty years. In Bangladesh, he is considered a poet of the 1970s because there is a long tradition here to be identified as a poet by a specific decade especially when s/he published his first book of poetry. In the meantime, Mahboob Hasan has successfully continued his poetic brilliance and published seven books of poems such as Tandrar kole Horin (1984), Tomar Proteek (1986), Nisharger Noon (1990), Amar Akash (1998), Shwapnagulu Bikri Hoye Gechhe (1999), Nirjan Janala (2000) and Tini Kathak Chhilen ( 2001). In these above poetic texts, he has already proved himself as a successful poet in depicting life, agitation of time, the urge of the soul towards beauty, historic moments, and movements of native land with experiments maintaining proper poetic diction and style. In fact, in his poems, Mahboob has compiled a group of signifiers of linguistic signs and transferred these into a hunk of the concrete message to express an expected signified.
2.2 Semiotic treatment and analysis
In his poetry, Mahboob Hasan contains his agony, emotions, and deep feeling, as well as ideas and ideology, hope and frustration of people who belong to the greater Bengali cultural system. The overall contents of his poems express this message in a broad sense. But from a semiotic point of view, Mahboob Hasan has tried to provide a signification technique to the readers since his poems incorporate a specific meaning-making process to create a true poetic emotion.
Bangla language and its associated sign forms, for instance, the land of Bengali people, culture, customs, folk tales, and myth underpin the poems of Mahboob Hasan. To generate a poem he first chooses these signs elements that exist as non-ordered or paradigmatic set in the Bengali cultural system then changes these into another type of relation called ordered or syntagmatic relation to making emotional and metrical poetic verses. This kind of ordered relation of various signs by poet Mahboob Hasan finally makes signification to readers and treated as poetry. In this process, Mahboob Hasan also adds his diverse cultural components, cognitive realization, and emotion along with his poetic techniques and style. Thus, his poetry becomes more significant and distinct in his time. And unlike other poets of contemporary Bangla literature, Mahboob tries to give the readers specific messages that are finally considered as text.
In the semiotic analysis of literature, the main concern is to identify the nature of the signification of the poet’s literary works. Semiotics as a meta-linguistic enterprise investigates this type of signification which ultimately unfolds distinct style and techniques of a poet who is depicting life and society. It is worthwhile to mention that all poets who belong to the identical culture usually receive the same linguistic signs from a dissimilar paradigmatic set, but they make different types of syntagmatic relations that denote the distinct nature of signification of their literary works. Poet Mahboob Hasan in his poetry too exhibits his style of signification techniques by creating unique syntagmatic relations with different manner and diction. In the following, we will make a critical semiotic analysis of Mahboob’s poems to examine how he develops a distinct type of signification to provide the message to the readers.
প্রাগৈতিহাসিক চেহারা নিয়েছে নগর আঁধার
ধাঁধার মতন ঝুলে আছে আমাদের গায়।
(বিক্রি করে আলোর আঁধার / নিসর্গের নুন)
As a poet of the twenty-first century Mahboob Hasan uses post-structuralist literary treatment. The post-structuralist literary movement begins in Europe in the last half of the twentieth century as a more advanced as well as anti-structuralist literary theory. Saussure, the founder of structuralism in Europe, extracts the arbitrary relation between the signifier (sound) and signified (idea) of a linguistic sign. Once this link is made it continues as a static process unless a creative person such as a poet breaks this tradition to serve an aesthetic purpose. Gordon (27: 2002) also mentions, ‘Language is free to set up a link between the sound (or sequence of sounds) and any idea, but once the link is made, neither an individual speaker nor the whole community of the speakers is free to undo it’.
But as the starting post-structuralist literary movement this kind of static relationship between two elements of a linguistic sign breaks down and makes the uncertain one in European literature after the First World War when life was uncertain and goalless due to the disaster of mankind. Then the poetic texts of Europe begin to use linguistic signs by establishing an uncertain relation of its signifier and signified. Similarly, in the thirties, poets of Bangla literature also welcome this post-structuralist literary treatment to depict their modern, uncertain, and complex lifestyle. Poet Mahboob Hasan, the successor of this tradition, pragmatically applies this post-structuralist technique in his poems too: For example,
1. এই ঝাঁ ঝাঁ গোখরোমুখো সাপের ফণার ঝিলিক
পাখির সুস্বাদু হৃৎপিন্ডের মতন চেটেপুটে খাবো
(খাবো কিংবা খাবো না / তন্দ্রার কোলে হরিণ)
2. দুপুরের লাঞ্চে থাক হরিণীর মতো স্মিত চোখের অম্লান কথা বলা
হলুদ পাতা ঝরে পড়ার মতো
সবজিভরা আমার পেট ভরে যাক
সোনালি ভোরের মৌণ দুঃখে
(খাবো কিংবা খাবো না / তন্দ্রার কোলে হরিণ)
3. বিমানবালারা যে রকম আকাশের উঁচু গ্রীল থেকে
হাওয়াই চপ্পল পরে
(খাবো কিংবা খাবো না / তন্দ্রার কোলে হরিণ)
The relation between signifier and signified of various linguistic signs mentioned in the above stanzas deviates from traditional meaning concepts and makes an arbitrary connection for which readers fail to make signification with the text. To draw the depiction of the voracious hungriness of a human being, Mahboob Hasan uses post-modernistic poetic treatment following poststructuralist technique in the above stanzas. Not surprisingly, in much recent Bengali poetry, where there is a more post-modernistic approach to the content of a text there might be more poststructuralist technique in its form as Mahboob Hasan exhibits in the above stanzas. Besides these aforesaid examples, as a postmodern poet, Mahboob frequently uses these kinds of poststructuralist treatment in the structure of his many other poems too.
The signifier of a sign denoting the sound, pictorial, or orthographic form of a linguistic sign is mainly responsible for creating the external or structural beauty of a poem. Usually, this signifier in various forms like simile, metaphor, or image uncovers the aesthetics sense and elegance of a poem which is considered the prime substance of poetic language. Like a real poet, Mahboob makes various forms of an image with the signifiers to enrich the beauty of his poems. In the following, we are providing examples of Mahboob’s images where signifiers give new structural representation:
1. মাছ শিকারীদের হাতের নিরিখ ছিলো খুবই ভালো
তারা জল আর রক্তের উৎসব থেকে টেনে তুলতো মাছের মহিমা,
(পাল্টে যাচ্ছে, পাল্টে যাচ্ছি / তন্দ্রার কোলে হরিণ)
2. আমার মুখের ঘা ছড়িয়ে পড়ে ক্রমান্বয়ে
পুরোনো ঢাকার গলির মতন
সেইখানে নর্দমার কীট কিলবিল করে
(স্বপ্ন থেকে জেগে / নিসর্গের নুন)
3. তুমি মধ্য যাম কামে-গন্ধে উন্মাতাল করে রাখো
রাত্রির আঁধার মাখো সুন্দরের চোখে
(বিবি হাওয়া সভ্যতার প্রতীক রমণী / আমার আকাশ)
The simile is the prime rhetoric of a poem that symbolizes the creative power of a poet. Jibananda Dash, the most powerful poet of Bangla Literature after Rabindranath, give emphases on simile in creating powerful poetry. As he quotes, ‘it is the simile that substantiates the poetic imagination’2. Therefore, like a true poet, Mahboob Hasan makes plenty of similes in his poems on a regular basis. Semiotically speaking, in the technique of generating simile two signifiers that belong to two opposite semantic domains come close together and indicate one signified which to some extent makes a similarity approach. In the following it is possible to provide some of Mahboob’s poetic similes:
1. এদিকে বর্ষার পানির মতো দেহের বেড়াজাল ছিঁড়ে
ছুটে আসে হৃদয়ের ব্যথিত উল্লাস।
(আমার স্বপ্ন / তন্দ্রার কোলে হরিণ)
2. সমুদ্র চিলের পাখায় জাতীয় পতাকার মতো
পতপত উড়তে থাকুক দূর বন্দরের দিকে নাবিকের চোখ।
(আমার স্বপ্ন / তন্দ্রার কোলে হরিণ)
3. প্রাগৈতিহাসিক চেহারা নিয়েছে নগর আঁধার
ধাঁধার মতন ঝুলে আছে আমাদের গায়।
(বিক্রি করে আলোর আঁধার / নিসর্গের নুন)
In languages, linguistic signs get collocation to generate a comprehensive meaning, especially when its user arranges them in a syntagmatic relation. Once these are organized maintaining grammatical features and manner, the whole linguistic community later follows this arrangement to elicit the meaning of given linguistic signs. But litterateurs especially poets sometimes break this typicality on the aspect of the traditional meaning of linguistic signs hence creates new syntagmatic relations and incorporates different treatment of linguistic signs intending to indicate a new signification process. Mahboob Hasan follows such alternate syntagmatic relations of Bangla linguistic signs to enrich the structural beauty of his poems. Thus, he generates new complex signs of this language. For instances,
1. Words: বিদ্যুৎমতী
2. Phrase: শত্রূতার মগডালে, রৌদ্রালো হাত, খাপখোলা সোনালি রোদ, বেগানা ডামাডোল, প্রেমের ট্যাটানি
3. Sentence: তোমার নখের বিদ্যুতে যৌনতা খলবলিয়ে হাসে।
The above stylistic treatments of Mahboob Hasan’s poems ultimately turn into an important semiotic term called ‘text’. Here the signifier ‘text’ signifies a different signified (concept) in semiotics. More specifically, in cultural semiotics – a branch of semiotics – the word ‘text’ relates to a bigger sign of a given cultural system that possesses the potential to be communicated with its native people. According to Lotman (1966), a text exhibits a separate message that is perceived as being distinct from a ‘non-text’ or ‘other text’. In this context, the text is a cultural sign that is part of the arena of daily cultural practice of people. On the other hand, the object or entity which is not familiar with the usual practice of people is identified as ‘non-text’. For example, ‘Festival of Nobobarsha’ or ‘Pohela Boaishakh’ is the text of Bengali people, whereas ‘Halloween’ is non-text.
Considering the above aspects Mahboob Hasan, a poet as well as the son of the soil of Bengali culture gives rise to many poetic expressions that are regarded as texts hence these meaningful larger signs are regularly practiced by Bengali people. A close analysis of his poems helps to identify various texts like the following ones. For instances, in his poems, Mahboob Hasan creates poetic texts made with diverse elements of Bengali culture such as the history and tradition of Bengal, agitation and un-fulfillment of both urban and rural people, the beauty of Bengali village as well as village girl, liberation war of Bangladesh, the flow of the river, etc. For example,
1. তুমি গত শতাব্দীর শান্তস্নিগ্ধ একটি এক
বাংলাদেশি গ্রাম,
দোয়েলের শিসে-ভরা তোমার বাগান চড়ুইয়ের কিচিরমিচির
আর গাভীর হাম্বার মাঝে তোমাকেই চেনা যায় ;
(একটি বর্ণানাত্মক কবিতা / তন্দ্রার কোলে হরিণ)
2. এই শহরে আর দশজন যেমন আছেন
ছেলেমেয়েসহ স্বামীর সংসার কিংবা সংসার ছাড়াও
তাদের ভালোবাসাও আছে ; আর আছে
ভোরবেলাকার প্রাত:ক্রিয়ার পর দিনমজুরির মতন
নিউজ পেপারের নোনাস্বাদ,
(আমার স্বপ্ন / তন্দ্রার কোলে হরিণ)
3. চাঁদ সুলতানার মতন উড়িয়ে নিশান তুমি বাংলার নীল-আকাশে
একমাত্র চাঁদ
দীপ্র গ্রীবার ভঙিমায়
(আমার আকাশ-২ / আমার আকাশ )
After all, the texts pictured in the above stanzas by Mahboob Hasan help envisage a complete Bangladesh and sons of the soil of Bengal Delta. These are in fact the prime contents of his poems which ultimately uncover the beauty of his country as well as his poetry.
Notes
1. This table of Hermann Parret has been taken from the book `The written Space’ by Harri Veivo (74: 2001)
2. This is the translation of poet Jibananda Dash’s famous statement – উপমাই কবিত্ব।
References
মাহবুব হাসান (2001). মাহবুব হাসানের কবিতা (Mahboob Hasaner Kobita -A collection of poems by Mahboob Hasan). Dhaka: Ayan
Culler, J. (2002). Structuralist poetics. Routledge
Culler, J. (2001). The Pursuit of sign. Routledge
Fiske, J. (1997). Introduction to Communication Studies. Routledge
Gordon, T. (2002). Saussure for beginners. Chennai: Orient Longman
Lotman, J.M. (1966). Problems in the typology of texts. In Lucid, David (ed.), Soviet Semiotics, 119-124. Baltimore & London: John Hopkins University Press
Veivo, H. (2001). The Written Space. Imatra: Acta Semiotica Fennica & international Semiotic Institute
