In the current era of contemporary Arab poetry, poets deliberately and consciously take advantage of the techniques such as cinema, painting, music, etc., in order to grounding their poetry on the basis of such techniques. One of the most prominent and postmodern Arab poets who put the principles of the new poetry on the table is the contemporary Lebanese poet Susan Alivan whose poetry is as distinct from that of his predecessors or modernist Arab poets such as Siab, Bayati, Nazik al-Mirae Is. The Lebanese poet emphasized the style and content characteristics of nineteencentury poets, most notably the interplay and application of other arts and techniques, especially collage in poetry. The collage, which represents the disorder and chaos of the contemporary world, was invented by Cubism painters, relying on components and sticky elements. Following this approach, the contemporary poet creates a collage-like poetic approach. That said, this descriptive-analytical research sought to analyze the court of Susan Alivan's "Rashiq al-Ghazal". The result showed that Susan Alivan has clearly used this technique in poetry. Moreover, it was revealed that her poems have a distinct and varied image, adhering to the principle of stickiness and inducing concepts such as chaos, disorder, confrontation, rupture, and high power and display capacity.

Susan Gass is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages at Michigan State University. Her research is in Second Language Acquisition and includes the areas of Input and Interaction, Language Universals and Language Transfer. More recently she has become interested in the area of attention and how it relates to acquisition. She has written/edited a number of books on second language acquisition and has taught and lectured in various parts of the world. Currently at MSU, she is the Director of the English Language Center, Co-Director of the Center for Language Education And Research, Co-Director of the Center for Language Teaching Advancement and Director of the Second Language Studies Ph.D. Program. She recently served as President of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (2002-2008). In the following interview, Susan Gass (SG) answers questions asked by Karim Sadeghi (KS) on her role as co-editor of SSLA.

Semiotics, as a field of knowledge applicable both in the creation and interpretation of texts, is one of the most important approaches in linguistics. Its application is essential in analyzing poetic texts, especially those by poets who primarily use symbolic language to convey their meanings. In this regard, we will conduct a comparative analysis of the poems of Sohrab Sepehri and Suzan Alivan, focusing on the symbolism of color and examining the meanings derived from these signs. Sepehri and Alivan are among the most prominent poets whose use of color is distinctly articulated in their poetic vision. Both poets depict personal and social life in their poetry by employing the concepts evoked by colors. The semiotic-semantic study of the color element reveals how two poets created meaning through the use of signs, distancing themselves from familiar and established textures. Exploring the semantic implications and internal relationships of the color element facilitates a deeper understanding of their intended meanings. The occasionally similar experiences in the personal and social lives of Sepehri and Alivan have shaped comparable literary paths for both poets, leading to similarities in the symbolism and frequent use of colors in their poetry. This article demonstrates that color, as a symbolic element, plays a significant role in creating meaning. In most cases, the frequency and function of colors are similar between the two poets, however, differences arise due to their distinct moods and experiences.   Introduction: Semiotics, as a field of knowledge applicable both in the creation and interpretation of texts, is one of the most important approaches in linguistics. Its application is especially essential in poetic texts, where poets primarily use symbolic language to convey their meanings. Every text has its own system of signs. Literary and artistic texts, which are identified based on their use of metaphorical systems, employ signs on a broader scale—both quantitatively and qualitatively. Among literary genres, poetry stands out as particularly distinctive in this regard. In this paper, we aim to conduct a comparative study of the poetry of two contemporary Persian and Arabic poet-painters by analyzing the semantic functions of signs and employing a descriptive-analytical method. Sepehri and Alivan have extensively used colors in their work. These two poet-painters primarily employ the symbolic concept of color in their poetry to guide their audience’s minds from the superficial meaning of the words to their deeper layers, revealing the secondary meanings hidden behind color-related terms. Examining this literary technique through the lens of semiotics and various discursive systems reveals how meaning is constructed in the poetry of these two poets. The presence of intellectual and philosophical commonalities in their thoughts, along with the social structures of Iranian and Lebanese societies, prompted an analysis of the use of color as an indicator shaped by their mentalities and spirits. Method: In the present research, which is descriptive-analytical and looks at the subject from the perspective of comparative research, painting and painting elements have generally been considered, and of course, color is also mentioned in part of the work, which in the first case is considered in a comparative manner between two poets and in the rest of the cases separately. In other cases, which basically deal with other poets, color has been examined as a semantic context and a subject of study in poetic works. The common focus of the works conducted is the examination of color as a semantic element in literary texts. In these studies, color—primarily serving a traditional and natural function—has been analyzed with this same perspective. The difference between this article and previous studies is notable in two respects: first, the case studies examine the poetry of two poets who are also painters, establishing a tangible and closer connection with color. Second, in the poetry of these poets, color transcends its superficial meaning and natural function to serve as a symbol expressing deeper, secondary meanings. Results and Discussion: Examining the function of colors in the poems of Sepehri and Alivan through a semiotic-semantic framework reveals numerous implicit connotations that form the semantic foundation of their poetry. Among the colors used in the divans of these two poets, black appears with high frequency. This color, the most frequent in Alivan's poetry and the second most frequent in Sohrab's, symbolizes the dominance of black. The disparity in frequency between black and the colors blue, yellow, and white—each appearing less often—reflects a sense of darkness and despair. This suggests a world where qualitative values are overshadowed by darkness and a focus on quantitative measures. The poetic worlds of the two poets are shaped by color and the concepts it evokes. However, Sohrab often imbues color with a romantic and perfectionist quality, while Alivan uses it to convey postmodern themes such as emptiness, anxiety, and chaos. The frequent use of black and white underscores this contrast. Conclusion: The relationship between color and sign is important to us because the human mind considers its relationship with other phenomena and events in the light of specific meanings. In other words, colors find meaning in the human mind beyond a chemical change or a sensory phenomenon, a meaning that is, of course, not unrelated to the tangible world. “Every color is a phenomenon, which is a code or metaphor for the light of its origin, and this meaning must be interpreted according to this manifestation. ” Such an approach to color has a wide application in literary texts, and in particular in modern poetry, which has a closer connection with the semiotic system and codes. In addition, the interplay between the arts of painting and poetry and the acceptance of the well-known mentality that painting is silent poetry and poetry is vocal painting have long led us to witness the presence of painter-poets and painter-poets in the field of meaning and art due to the similarity of these two arts in the beautiful and creative recording of subjects. Of course, the effective function of the element of color in these genres is natural. Examining the position and meaning of color in the art of poetry can reveal the communicative position of great truths from language, literature, and society. As Mallarmé, the famous French Symbolist poet, in a French poem, matched color, fragrance, and natural sounds.

In recent decades, analytical philosophers have argued for the ‘ meaning of life’ as a normative, independent category and hence have criticized the reductionist approaches based on two normative categories of ethics and happiness. Presenting the subjective and objective conditions, Susan Wolf attempts to offer a novel theory of ‘ meaning of life’ that dismantles the simplified relationship between this concept and two notions of ethics and happiness. She claims that to theorize the ‘ meaning of life’ we require to establish a set of particular values that allow a given individual human to go beyond her own narrow values and therefore generate a sense of satisfaction for herself. According to her, this establishment of empowering values is a necessary condition for a theory of ‘ meaning of life’ to be autonomous from existing theories of ethics and happiness. She subsequently reviews and brings into question some of the criteria developed to capture and identify the objective, meaningful values, such as subject-independence, judgment from the third person’ s perspective, developing a person's abilities, and a competent judge. Thus, she concludes that there is no definitive standard to assess such values. Instead of having a specific theory, she alternatively seeks a direct and active engagement with personal experiences to distinguish between meaningful actions and ethical, joyful ones. While Wolf’ s conception of a meaningful life has some deficiencies, such as the impossibility of recognizing the meaning-giving actions in the absence of any theory, her conceptual development of ‘ meaning of life’ has been influential in liberating this concept from notions of ethics and happiness.

Numerous dramatic characters enormously appeal to us on account of the fact that they are powerfully present on the stage. Nevertheless, there exist characters who do not physically appear on stage, yet their “absent presence” is so strong that affects the characters who do appear physically on stage. William Gruber in his book “Offstage Space, Narrative, and the Theatre of Imagination” suggests that the “absent presence” of the main characters who live in “offstage space” opens up new possibilities for the playwrights. Examples of such plays can be found from classic canon to modern plays. The present study attempts to explore the “assent presence” in Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and illustrate how the main character of the play, who does not appear on stage throughout the play, is pivotal to the action of the play and is created vividly in the imagination of readers/ audience and remains a strong character in dramatic literature.

Saints and heroes are highly respected as moral ideals because they go beyond the minimum standards of morality and dedicate themselves to serving others. However, it is difficult to justify their unusual and exhausting lifestyle, especially for modern individuals. Susan Wolf is one of the philosophers who recognizes this issue and proposes more appealing ideals that promote happiness, goodness, and meaningfulness in life. She strongly opposes the saintly life, which she believes is unpleasant, one-dimensional, and boring. In this article, we explain Wolf's viewpoint and the arguments of her opponents descriptively and analytically. We will also critique the claims raised while evaluating the moral saint as an admirable ideal for today's life. The conclusion is that the lifestyle of saints may be incomprehensible to modern individuals due to its lack of harmony with the masses, reliance on divine virtues, extreme altruism, and supererogatory acts. However, they reveal new possibilities and capacities for human life as pioneers of morality. They can inspire us to self-actualization, develop our capabilities, and cultivate more virtues.

Hydro-geoelectric properties of the Asmari and Ilam-Sarvak formations in Susan Syncline (located in Middle Karoon Basin), North of Izeh, were investigated to recognize electrical resistivity ranges of dry and wet limestone, karstification, and fractures and determine the areas with high potential for groundwater exploitation. For this purpose, the resistivity data were collected in 245 vertical geoelectric sounding (VES) using Schlumberger array in the contact of limestone and adjacent alluvium. The resistivity data were interpreted as one-dimensional and two-dimensional tomography (using RES2DINV software). The resistivity curves of VES in the Asmari Formation have lower value and ranges of resistivity than the Ilam-Sarvak Formation which can be understood by high yield of the aquifers from the smooth descending VES curves. Interpretation of two-dimensional geoelectrical tomography revealed that the Ilam - Sarvak Formations have considerable potential groundwater in crushed zones but the karst development and cavities in them are less than the Asmari limestone. The spring discharges from the Ilam-Sravak Formations in Susan area is in relation with the contact of compact limestone and water bearing fractured zones. Despite the lack of major springs in the Susan Syncline,the results of the hydro-geoelectrical investigation showed the Asmari limestone aquifer, has a high groundwater potential. The electrical resistivity of the Asmari Formation is lower than the Ilam-Sravak ones because of the higher porosity of limestone matrix in the former.