An Examination of Greimas’s Actantial Model in Rumi’s Fihi Ma Fihi

Abstract

Fihi Ma Fihi is a collection of Rumi’s discourses delivered in encounters with emirs, ministers, and prominent figures, revealing diverse dimensions of his personality, thought, and spiritual disposition. The work is rich in mystical, ethical, and intellectual insights. In this text, Rumi, without concern for rhyme or poetic form, expresses spiritual concepts and his own viewpoints in accordance with the audience’s level of understanding, using simple and popular language as well as proverbs, similes, anecdotes, stories, Qur’anic verses, and traditions. The anecdotes in this book usually begin with a state of equilibrium, enter a crisis through the occurrence of an event, and ultimately return to equilibrium. In many of them, the main character, who is sometimes an antihero, confronts the violation of a contract or an ethical or social prohibition and eventually encounters punishment or the restoration of moral order. From the perspective of Greimas’s actantial model, Rumi’s Fihi Ma Fihi, rather than possessing a coherent narrative and clearly defined actants, reflects mystical ideas in the form of dialogues and free reflections. In this work, abstract concepts such as love, reason, and the carnal self assume the role of actants through allegory and metaphor, and the narrative structure can be examined primarily at the level of meaning and conceptual functions. The narratives also often lack causal connection and a clearly defined story order, forming meaning in an instantaneous and fragmented manner.