Semiotics
Semiotics" is one way to approach literary analysis. Semiotics is the study of signs.
In so many words, a semiotic approach assumes that authors use symbols/signs intentionally AND unintentionally.
Therefore, a work may have many meanings based on the many view points and experiences of the audience.
Here are some examples of actual signs which obviously need some interpretation, although, no doubt, the sign creator thought the message was clear!
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A Brief introduction to Semiotics : |
Semiotics for Beginners"Whatever our philosophical positions, in our daily behaviour we routinely act on the basis that some representations of reality are more reliable than others. And we do so in part with reference to cues within texts which semioticians (following linguists) call 'modality markers'. Such cues refer to what are variously described as the plausibility, reliability, credibility, truth, accuracy or facticity of texts within a given genre as representations of some recognizable reality. Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen acknowledge that'A social semiotic theory of truth cannot claim to establish the absolute truth or untruth of representations. It can only show whether a given 'proposition' (visual, verbal or otherwise) is represented as true or not. From the point of view of social semiotics, truth is a construct of semiosis, and as such the truth of a particular social group, arising from the values and beliefs of that group.' From such a perspective, reality has authors; thus there are many realities rather than the single reality posited by objectivists. This stance is related to Whorfian framings of relationships between language and reality. Constructionists insist that realities are not limitless and unique to the individual as extreme subjectivists would argue; rather, they are the product of social definitions and as such far from equal in status. Realities are contested, and textual representations are thus 'sites of struggle'. Text by Daniel Chandler December 06, 200 |
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