Narrative Structure ofTa'ammBra Mala'8kt

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Date

2000-05

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AAU

Abstract

Expatriate and Ethiopian Scholars (like Harden 1926, Gerard 1981 , Amsalu 1974 E.C.) claim the existence of a number of Ge'ez literatures translated from Arabic, Syrian, Greek and Hebrew. These and other scholars have also studied Ge'ez texts for their significance as the treasure-house of the nation 's administrative, social, economic, religious and military history. Yet most of the studies do not focus on the literary features of the texts. This thesis aims at identifying and analyzing the narrative structure of Ta'ammora Mala'okt (miracles of angles). Only four Dorsana Mala 'okt (books of angles) are selected as they are the only Dorsanat (books) published and available in the libraries and in the market. These are 0 6l-sanCi Mikael, Oa-sanCi GCibro'el, Oa-sanCi Urael and Oa-sana Raguel. Thirty five functions (events) are identified through the analysis of fifty eight Ta'ammorat (miracles). The number of functions differs from one Ta'ammor to another ranging from four to twenty one. The sequence does also differ, for some events repeat themselves in the course of a Ta'ammor and others exhibit different type of succession. But all of them share a common structure. They reveal four basic events: initiating event, departure Iprayerl repentance, helper and fulfillmentlresolution. III Moreover, nine characters are traced from the texts. They carry out one or more actants (roles) of a subject, object, helper, opponent, receiver or superhelper. The actants are also performed by more than one character. Besides, the relationships among characters developed by A.J . Greimas and that Ta'amm8ra Mala '8kt entail reveal disparities. Consequently, Greimas' actantal model cannot be fully applied to these texts. The classification of Ta'amm8ra Mala'8kt has also been made In two ways, based on the relationship of characters and in accordance with their initiating events.

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literatures translated from Arabic, Syrian, Greek and Hebrew

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