This course introduces the student to the study of communication not only as a process, but as a generation of meaning. For communication to take place one has to create a message out of signs. Terms like sign, signification, icons, index, symbol, denotation, connotation refer to various ways of creating meaning. We will focus on these terms as structural models and analyze them as a structured set of relationships which enable a message to signify something. The first part of the course will concentrate on the history of sign production by discussing the theories of de Saussure, Peirce, Benveniste, Barthes and Eco. Then the student will concentrate on a) the sign itself as a human construct; b) the codes or systems into which signs are organized; and c) the culture within which these codes and signs operate. Semiotics is the general study of semiosis, that is, the processes and effects of the production and reproduction of meaning in all forms. Hence, we will apply the concept of semiosis to a myriad of texts and discourse(s) ranging from linguistic (verbal) production to imagistic (non-verbal) representation on the paradigmatic and syntagmatic planes. Assessment: Final exam.
Course Outline
