A Semiotic Study of Bushra al-Bustani’s Poem Iraqi Music Based on the Theory of Michael Riffaterre

Semiotics is regarded as an effective method of criticism that influences one’s cognition of the text and conscious triumph over textual signs. As a new critical method, semiotics follows the movement of signifiers in the text, participates in the explanation of truth, and unveils words. This method is employed to influence the concealed layers of text and gain access to its themes. One of the main methods of critical translation as well as of semiotic criticism is Riffaterre’s method which is used in poetry. His theory is underpinned by structural matrix, descriptive constellations and the chain of poetic signifiers, around which the study of the text of poetry and its signifiers are centered. This research on the semiotic method in the light of semiotic tools attempts to study Bushra al-Bustani’s poem Iraqi Music. One of the conclusions we reached was that the structural matrix of the poem is cycled through the four significations of death, pain, victory, and opening. Similarly, the descriptive constellations of the poem are exclusive to four constellations whose movements are weakness, betrayal, occupation, and the certainty of Phoenician response in civilized Iraq. The text begins with the illustration of the states of death, being lost, infertility, and conflict, and the movement of signifiers in the poem is through visualizing victory, driving enemies away, and reclaiming the land of Iraq.