Critical Theory

Week 4: Tools for Reading Culture: Semiotics

Interpretation

• What Is Meaning?
• Classical Theories of Linguistic Meaning
• What Does A Sentence Mean?
• Roman Jacobsen's Theory of Communication
• Interpretive Perspectives

Structuralism

• General Characteristics
• Ferdinand de Saussure and Structuralism
• Levi-Strauss and Structuralism

Semiotics

• Peirce and Semiotics
• Semiotics: Basic Structure
• Chandler's DIY Semiotics
  • Identifying the Text
  • Purpose in Analyzing the Text?
  • Type-Token Distinction
  • Important Signifiers
  • Modality
  • Paradigmatic Analysis
  • Syntagmatic Structure
  • Rhetorical Tropes
  • Intertextuality
  • Semiotic Codes
  • Social Semiotics
  • Benefits and Limitations of Semiotic Analysis
• Deconstruction
  • NY Times Derrida Obituary
• Baudrillard and Simulacra
  • Disneyworld Company
  • America excerpts
  • On the Murderous Capacity of Images

Great Resources on Semiotics

• Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners (source of some of the above)
• Semiotics - Quick Overview
• Cultural Studies Course - with semiotics