Reflection of Roland Barthes' Five Codes in the Discourse of the Novel Al-Jazieh wa Al-Daravish by Abdul Hamid bin Hadouqa

The novel Al-Jazieh wa Al-Daravish by Abdul Hamid bin Hadouqa is a symbolically rich work of literature that reflects the colonial and postcolonial circumstances in the Algerian society and discusses the past, present, and future outlooks of different parties in that society. In the present study, the novel is analyzed in terms of the five codes set by Roland Barthes in his book S/Z (1970). The codes include proairetic, hermeneutic, semic, symbolic, and cultural codes. The research addresses the contemporary Algerian culture at the level of those codes by shedding light on the events, enigmas, stated and implied pieces of evidence and cultural associates of the novel.Using a descriptive-analytical method as well as a qualitative survey, this study seeks to detect the instances in the discourse of the novel Al-Jazieh wa Al-Daravish that are based on the five codes postulated by Barthes (1970). The instances are then analyzed and interpreted according to Barthes’ theory and the available semiotic features so as to achieve explicit and implicit clues to the understanding of the text.Roland Barthes is a pioneer in the field of literary criticism that has performed a structural analysis of the novella Sarrasine by Balzac. In his book S/Z, he proposes a set of five codes of creating meaning. Considered to be of the same weight, the codes are of proairetic, hermeneutic, semic, symbolic, and cultural types. These codes lay the grounds for the analysis of the discourse in the novel Al-Jazieh wa Al-Daravish.This code pertains to the actions in the novel which are as follows:a) Imprisonment of Al-Tayeb and his recollections, suggesting the occurrence of murder. He recalls such characters in the novel as Al-Jazieh, Al-Ahmar, Al-Shambit, and Al-Akhzar, the village where the story happens, Al-Tayeb’s proposal to Al-Jazieh, and the struggle of Al-Ahmar and Al-Shambit to take that girl.b) Return of Ayid to the village and his facing with what has happened there. This provides the audience with new insight and complementary information.c) Communication of Ayid to some characters and his detection of why Al-Ahmar was murdered,d) Proposing of Al-Shambit to Al-Jazieh for his son,e) Al-Shambit’s murder or death, andf) Acquittal of Al-Tayeb and the disclosure of Al-Jazieh’s real identity, namely Algeria.This code addresses the enigmas in the text and the responses to them. There are, indeed, numerous enigmatic instances, such as ‘who are Al-Jazieh and Al-Daravish?’, ‘why are these two names collocated in the title?’, ‘why is the novel divided into two times rather than two chapters?’, ‘why is Al-Tayeb put to the jail?’, ‘is he guilty or innocent?’, and ‘how are Al-Ahmar and Al-Shambit murdered?’. All these enigmas are gradually decoded as the novel goes on.This code refers to the implications of the novel. There exist many such implicit concepts some regarding the characters and some about places and objects. A noticeable one is the book title, where Al-Jazieh implies Algeria and Al-Daravish connotes Sufism. The other names, such as Al-Tayeb, Al-Ahmar, Al-Shambit, and Al-Ayed have implications, too. They refer to Islam, socialism, the West, and Algerian immigrants, respectively. Similarly, mountainous village, mountain, willow, and sewing a bornoz by Al-Akhzar imply resistance and the rejection of foreigners by the nation. This code can be detected through the dual contrasts in the text. Found in a high number, such contrasts may be categorized in a few groups as follows:a) The alliance of the worshipper and the worshipped (i.e. Al-Jazieh and Al-Daravish) encoded just once but salient throughout the novel,b) The contrast of the past and present or future tenses, which has frequent evidence such as the first- and second-time divisions in the novel, andc) The contrast of resistance and compromise, which is frequently encoded such as the contrast of life and death.This code is considered as the voice of awareness in the text and denotes the cultural concepts encoded there. It includes the names of the major characters of the story, each of whom arises from a certain cultural context and represents a certain mode of thought or action. Al-Jazieh is a mythical, traditional, and cultural name in Algeria that symbolized this country in the novel. The other names suggest the different political movements that seek to seize the power in the country. Al-Tayeb arises from the Islamic culture, Al-Ahmar symbolizes socialism, Al-Shambit and his son represent the pro-west people, and Al-Ayed is the reminder of the immigrants returning home. The novel also depicts some Algerian customs and ceremonies.The studied novel includes a set of intertwined codes some of which are disclosed as the text proceeds to shape up the story. Some of the codes also show up within the implicit parts of the discourse, through binary contrasts, and in cultural references. The specific political circumstances in the Algerian society and the attempts of conflicting parties to take the government are encoded in a major bulk of the novel. The codification is mainly fulfilled with semic codes, cultural codes, and then symbolic codes.