Narrative Structure ofTa'ammBra Mala'8kt
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2000-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
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.
Description
Keywords
literatures translated from Arabic, Syrian, Greek and Hebrew