{"title":"Revisiting Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker:\u0000a Semiotic Study of the Dramatis Personae","authors":"K. Besbes","doi":"10.36394/jhss/16/1b/15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36394/jhss/16/1b/15","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:\u0000The present article sought to offer a semiotic analysis of Pinter’s The\u0000Caretaker’s characters as signifers in their own right. The article also aimed\u0000at studying the play’s dramatis personae as loci of multi-coded expressions,\u0000with a focus on the various modes of signifcation associated with them.\u0000Using semiotics as an analytical method, the author explored the linguistic\u0000and paralinguistic features of the characters’ discourses as signs in relation\u0000to the play’s pivotal themes, their kinesic and body expressions as indexical\u0000signs, as well as their distinctive proxemic behavior(s) onstage. Some\u0000attention was also given to the characters’ handling of stage props and the\u0000special meanings attached to them as replicators of character personality.\u0000The results of the discussion showed that using a semiotic approach to\u0000analyze The Caretaker’s characters can yield positive outcomes in terms\u0000of comprehensive analysis and interpretation of the characters as dynamic\u0000unities of interrelated sign-systems.\u0000Keywords: Pinter, semiotics, dramatis personae, linguistic, kinesic,\u0000proxemic","PeriodicalId":230257,"journal":{"name":"University of Sharjah (UoS) Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127004698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}