Symbols as Photographic Texts in the Travel Narratives of Paulo Coelho

Title

Symbols as Photographic Texts in the Travel Narratives of Paulo Coelho

Creator

Sebastian, Rajat

Contributor

S, Vidya

Description

Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho de Souzas The Pilgrimage, The Alchemist, Zahir, Aleph and Hippie are known for using literary symbols to describe journeys where the protagonists travel to different destinations searching for something valuable. The author resorted to multiple religions, cultures, traditions, mythologies and folklore to derive inspiration to use those symbols and frame his philosophical thoughts. As the symbols used by Coelho can be deciphered in whatever way subject to personal interpretations, one way of understanding them can be from the perspectives of their already established meanings in religions, cultures, traditions, mythologies and folklore. Such a way of understanding limits the possible meanings that can be derived from those symbols. Moreover, another sign system is known for conveying limited meanings, usually called photographs. Though absolute material accuracy is seen as the hallmark of photography, the meaning of photographs also depends upon their interpretations, and photographic truth is considered a myth. Still, photographs possess documentary properties and convey limited meanings to a large extent. This thesis studied the idea of photography, defining the same by understanding the historical developments in photography over time. Knowing the definition and properties of photographs, it looked at how photographs convey limited meanings and exhibit 'iconic' properties in general. After isolating and studying the literary symbols used by Coelho in the five travel narratives mentioned above using the Peircean model of semiotic analysis, the thesis concludes that symbols act as photographic texts to a certain limit in the five novels, as they tend to move towards becoming 'iconic' from 'symbolic' if understood from the perspectives of their existing meanings in religions, cultures, traditions,mythologies and folklore.

Source

Author's Submission

Date

2024-01-01

Publisher

Christ(Deemed to be University)

Subject

English

Rights

Open Access

Relation

61000288

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

PhD

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10603/547686