الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The thesis attempts to analyze the role and composition of poetic imagery in modern American drama and study their signifying structure in the light of Lacan’s theory of structural-psychoanalysis. The thesis argues that theatrical drama is an all-inclusive art work whose significance is based on variable sign systems employing verbal and nonverbal images. It also suggests a comprehensive classification which encompasses all signs involved in the theatrical system. Since theatre is viewed as a texture of intricate sign system, poetic images are regarded as integral signs embedded in its structure. The thesis specifies and narrows its research scope to psychoanalytical dimension of the use of poetic images as a signifying system and discusses how the image pattern contributes to the thematic structure of the work. Therefore, it uses Lacan’s theory of structural-psychoanalysis as an approach in the analysis of poetic images in O’Neill and Albee’s theatres. Structural psychoanalysis treats metaphors and symbols as signifiers whose significance is related to the unconscious and points out their role as major constituents of the play’s structure. The thesis illustrates how the two playwrights employ a remarkable variety of overlapping sign systems in projecting these theatrical images including spatial, kinetic, linguistic and paralinguistic signs.