GROUNDS OF FOOD CRAVE IN PALESTINE: A MULTIMODAL STUDY OF HUMAN SUFFERINGS

Abstract

Wars not only demolish the life structure but also demolish the values and morality. Food cravings are the significant issues that give birth to human tragedy when it occurs during war. Palestinians always have to suffer from food cravings during the wars. The present study aims to understand the meanings of food cravings presented through the war images that affected Palestine. The study has adopted the semiotic models of Kress & van Leeuwen (2006), which is a multimodal approach that addresses the representational, interactional and compositional meanings of the images. Six images are selected for the present study through convenient sampling. The findings address that the representational meaning presents the existence of war effects resulting in food shortage. These lead to the loss of values and morality. The compositional meanings present that the structure of life has been destroyed, and humans are in search of survival. The interactional meanings ask to feel the pains as well appeal to the reader for peace, stability, values return, and life structures revival. The images present the objective approach as the destruction of the life structures of Palestinians, while the subjective approach presents the birth of human tragedy.

Keywords: Food Crave, War, Multimodal Study, Human Sufferings, Representational Meanings, Conceptual Meanings and Interactional Meanings.