Semiotyka

SEMIOLOGY AND SEMIOTICS HANDOUT

ign = a representation of sth, stands for sth else, arbitrary Symptom (a.k.a. index, indicator) = sign that points to its cause, e.g. smoke from the chimney -> cooking, temperature -> infection, etc.

Problem: disproportion between the sign and its cause (Freud, Nietzsche), e.g. small cloud -> big rain, little external bleeding -> serious internal damage Syndrome = a group of symptoms

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE (1857-1913) a Swiss linguist, father of linguistics as an academic discipline, of structural linguistics and of semiology

Semiology=the study of signs, part of social psychology Diadic concept of sign:

Signifier: the form of sign (visual, auditory): m-o-th-e-r Signified: the content of sign (meaning, idea behind it): the idea of a mother

Their relation is constant, conventional (arbitrary), independent of the context; the actual object was unimportant

CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE (1839-1914) an American logician and mathematician, father of pragmaticism.

He put forward a triadic concept of sign: representamen (close to ‘signifier’, the form of sign), interpretant (a sign in the mind of the interpreter - signified), referent (object)

He coined the term ‘semiosis’ – creation, reception and transmission of signs; establishing relationships between signs which are to be interpreted by an audience.

THE STUDY OF SIGNS FOR LITERATURE

literature creates a model of reality by choosing concrete elements of another system The structure of natural language is combined with ideological, artistic, ethic, etc., structure

Meaning is created when one system’s code of signs is „translated” into another system literature may reveal the psychological and emotional makeup of the artist, aesthetic trends, speak about the protagonist’s adventures

Literature creates its own world, through additional denotants Space of a literary work

Essentially binary relations: up-down, open-closed, etc. It can be infused with other meanings (other meanings attach to it from other systems – like, e.g., ideological, which intersect within a literary work), e.g., good-bad,

One of the most popular motifs: crossing borders between the opposing ends of the spacial organization

SEMIOLOGY OF CULTURE Text=a recorded sequence of signs, of a marked beginning and end, internally organized in a structure and separated from other systems of signs; e.g., book, film, musical score, traditions, rituals, etc.

Culture=a complex system of signs; in opposition to everything not-culture, e.g. nature; cannot exist without language; is common memory

Texts of culture=have a special place in relation to culture, e.g., fashion, advertisement, lifestyle, etc. everything is „made” of sings (every human gesture is a sign)

UMBERTO ECO (1932-2016) Semiotics and Interpretation

The unlimited semiosis of culture: each sign produces more signs, which are continuously communicated and interpreted, creating a universe

Semiological guerrilla: uncovering the ideologies, underlying the texts of culture and preventing the transformation of mass media in the means of social control

On Reading and Interpretation „author”: communicative strategy, appealing to the reader and defining his reading

On Reading and Interpretation „author”: communicative strategy, appealing to the reader and defining his reading

„reader”: receiving strategy, inscribed in the text, as a system of the rules for decoding (reading instructions)

„work of art”: a set of mechanisms for producing a model reader The Limits of Interpretation

indicators of a good interpretation: Respect for the text Coherence: each sign within the text must create a coherent whole with other signs forming the system

Model reader: the assumed recipient of the text Possesses the knowledge of the possibilities of interpretation Possesses the knowledge of the historical contex of the work of art

ROLAND BARTHES (1915-1980) Semiotic mythology socially involved; interested in disclosing ideological manipulation in mass culture, propaganda Wrote about all texts of culture (myths): films, press, toys, food, strip-tease, African grammar, fashion, etc.

Aimed at describing „new mythologies” Myth=secondary semiological system Myths as second order signs Sign=signifier+signified Meaning=form+idea

Second order=higher level of semiosis Through connotations, a sign from the first level becomes a signifier for the second level, referring to and transmitting novel ideas

New myths are parasitical: they thrive on already existing language, appropriating its signs to propagate new meanings; especially dangerous because seemingly natural and usually not detected by the recipient

Poetic sign Literature, especially poetry, is able to withstand and unmask the processes of the appropriation of signs Poetry is geared towards the return to „original” signs

Towards the text the pleasure of reading (Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text, 1973) the death of the author (Barthes, The Death of the Author, 1968)

there is no authorial presence imposing „correct” interpretation the text speaks for itself the role of the reader: co-creator of the text

new interpretation: rather than seeking one, „true” meaning, one needs to read the text closely and derive pleasure from the multiple possible meanings

a triumphant plural” of meanings, „starred text”: the celebration of polisemy the interweaving of textual codes creates the „fabric” of the text (S/Z)

HE FIVE CODES (expounded in S/ZS, 1970, which purports to be an exhaustive structuralist reading of Balzac’s short story “Sarrasine”

1. The hermeneutic code (HER.) Problematic, inexplicable moments in the text Posing a riddle to the reader 2. The proairetic code (ACT.) Action provoking another action The chain of interconnected actions: a sequence

he semantic code (SEM.) The presence of connotations important for the text as a whole 4. The symbolic code (SYM.) The presence of antitheses and paradoxes Refers to basic questions, e.g., life vs. death, Good vs. Evil, male vs. female