This article examines Sherzad Hassan’s Goli Rash through linguistic landscape research, arguing that the plot is structured by the semiotic force of the domestic threshold. Drawing on emplacement (Scollon and Scollon, 2003), bottom-up signs (Ben-Rafael et.al., 2006), and the metalinguistic landscape (Seargeant, 2023), the analysis demonstrates how the domestic threshold functions as an antagonist that dominates the narrator, blocks his desire, and annihilates his hope. The threshold operates as a semiotic resource of exclusion. The narrator’s monologue is a grassroots discourse accessible to those excluded from formal communication. The domestic threshold is an active agent; it refuses to open, lets flowers wither, sends signals through silence, and destroys the narrator’s hope. By reading the threshold as a bottom-up sign of class division, this article contributes to the intersection of literary analysis and linguistic landscape studies. The article addresses: 1.How does the threshold function as a semiotic resource? 2. How do Iranian LL findings illuminate the threshold as a sign of exclusion? 3.How can reading the monologue as verbal graffiti reframe bottom-up discourse in literary contexts? The novelty lies in applying linguistic landscape theory, developed for empirical urban signage, to literary analysis, opening new interdisciplinary pathways between sociolinguistics and literary studies.
Rahmani, H. (2026). The Domestic Threshold as a Dominant Hero: A Linguistic Landscape Reading of Goli Rash by Sherzad Hassan. Critical Literary Studies, (), -. doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64733
MLA
Rahmani, H. . "The Domestic Threshold as a Dominant Hero: A Linguistic Landscape Reading of Goli Rash by Sherzad Hassan", Critical Literary Studies, , , 2026, -. doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64733
HARVARD
Rahmani, H. (2026). 'The Domestic Threshold as a Dominant Hero: A Linguistic Landscape Reading of Goli Rash by Sherzad Hassan', Critical Literary Studies, (), pp. -. doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64733
CHICAGO
H. Rahmani, "The Domestic Threshold as a Dominant Hero: A Linguistic Landscape Reading of Goli Rash by Sherzad Hassan," Critical Literary Studies, (2026): -, doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64733
VANCOUVER
Rahmani, H. The Domestic Threshold as a Dominant Hero: A Linguistic Landscape Reading of Goli Rash by Sherzad Hassan. Critical Literary Studies, 2026; (): -. doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64733
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