Analyzing and Investigating Discursive, Semiotic and Textual Components of Literary Narrative Identity: The Case Study of Goli Taraghi's Short stories

Most definitions encompassing the concept of identity refer to the "sense of belonging to categories and social groups". Accordingly, sociologists as well as linguist and specialists of discourse analysis have tried to provide a comprehensive definition of the term. Based on the scholars of the first category, identity is part of a person's "self-concept", which stems from his knowledge of his membership to a social group. While linguists and discourse analysts such as Kroskrity (2000: 14) have identified identity as the result of language function in the process of linguistic and narrative production. In other words, identity has a kind of discursive – linguistic mechanism of belonging to one or more groups and communities in which language and discourse play a key role in its formation. Given this theoretical framework, the present study seeks to analyze and investigate the emergence and formation of narrative identity in literary discourse of Goli Taraghi – Iranian immigrant writer by adopting a descriptive – analytical research methodology. In this approach, "self" and "other” are no longer considered as fixed, and stable elements, but rather they are taken into account as dynamic elements emerging in the context of discourse and narrative action. However, this research seeks to answer two fundamental questions: what are the main discursive components involved in the formation of literary narrative identity? What are the major levels of analysis in this case? The results showed that social bias and representation, categorization and agency as discursive components are analyzable at semio- textual levels.