Social Discourse Analysis in Ahmad Mahmoud’s The Neighbors Based on Pierre Guiraud’s Social Semiotics

Abstract

The novel The Neighbors by Ahmad Mahmoud is regarded as one of the most prominent examples of the social novel in contemporary Iranian literature, offering an accurate depiction of the lives of the lower classes, workers, intellectuals, and social actors of the 1940s and 1950s (Gregorian Calendar). With a realist approach, the novel uncovers the hidden layers of social life and relations of power. Despite numerous studies on this novel, few investigations have been conducted based on Pierre Guiraud’s theoretical framework of social semiotics. Guiraud considers signs not as limited to language, but as traceable in customs, identities, rituals, behaviors, fashions, and social games (Guiraud, 1975). The purpose of this research is to analyze the representation of cultural and social signs in The Neighbors using social semiotics and to demonstrate how these signs contribute to the formation and continuity of social and political discourses within the text. The findings indicate that social etiquette and politeness in the novel reflect class distinctions and relations of power; the individual and collective identities of the characters are formed within a framework of tension between tradition and modernity; and social behaviors, whether at the individual or collective level, reflect the nature of human beings in critical situations. Furthermore, social codes such as clothing, language, and urban symbols carry class-based and cultural meanings. Ultimately, this study shows that The Neighbors is not merely a literary work but a socio-discursive text embedded with a complex network of signs. The social-semiotic analysis of this novel provides a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying identity, culture, and politics in Iranian society during the historical period in question.