The Actant Constructs of the Bani Hilal’s Biography: The Tale of Princess Khadra as an Example

Dr. Said Buaita, Morocco

This study attempts to study the actant constructs in the tale of Princess Khadra in the biography of the Bani Hilal as reported by Dr. Roselyn Laila Quraish in order to identify the most important norms governing the narrative text. The study relies on hypothesis, actualisation and teleology. 

To achieve the aim of this study, I used theoretical input from narrative semiotics (especially Greimas’ theories) at the level of form and content. The study used the example of the tale of Princess Khadra. I identified various factors that contributed to building the narrative and helped to control the relationships that regulate these factors, especially the relationship of the actant-value factors, the relationship to the other as an antithesis, or the relationships among the narrator, receiver and actant.

The connections among the factors constitute a structure that is distributed according to specific frameworks controlled by the conflict structure in the tale of Princess Khadra in particular and in the biography of the Bani Hilal in general.