<![CDATA[This study aims to identify the forms of denotative and connotative signs that represent metaphors of dehumanization and to analyze the mythical constructions that naturalize patriarchal ideology toward women in Kahlil Gibran’s novel Al-Ajniḥah Al-Mutakassirah through Roland Barthes’s semiotic approach. This study employs a qualitative descriptive-analytical method, analyzing denotative and connotative meanings, myths, and representations of dehumanizing metaphors according to Nick Haslam. The data consist of words or sentences that represent the patriarchal mythical constructs regarding women conveyed by Gibran through poetic language using nature metaphors and various commodities. The data source for this study is Kahlil Gibran’s novel Al-Ajniḥah Al-Mutakassirah, published by Hindawi. The results of the analysis of 23 data points indicate that the female character, Selma Karamy, experiences dehumanization in the form of animalization and mechanization. Animalization is represented through a bird with broken wings, while mechanization is represented through objectification or an individual who has lost agency. The construction of the patriarchal myth in this novel naturalizes women’s suffering, resignation, loss of autonomy, and subordination as moral obedience, fate, and the natural consequences of marriage and the socio-religious order.]]>
Copyrights © 2026
