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Semiotics is the study of signs and sign systems. Signs are things which stand for other things (much as a rose represents romanticism, a heart represents love, a cross Christianity, and so on) in our consciousness and behavior, that is, in the world of meaning we share through communication. This course is an introduction to the methods and theories of semiotics and its concern with the "life of signs" — signs as individual entities, as they operate within larger groups of signs called codes, and as codes, in turn, operate within cultures. The creative side of our existence ensures that we are sign makers, speakers, concept and object makers, storytellers and the product of stories, and artists in every genuine sense of the term. We spend our lives sending messages generated by signs about ourselves and interpreting messages that others send about themselves — in language forms, myths, art works, rituals and related theatrical performances, artifacts, body-centered displays that range from facial expressions to hair styles, tattooing, dance, and the other meaningful forms and expressions that constitute social life. Exploring the field of semiotics helps us understand the role that signs play in our lives, how we use them and interpret signs sent by others in nonverbal communication, speech, written texts, and combinations thereof, and how the codes in these processes figure into the shared mentality that defines for us the nature of the world and our place in it. The course provides examples from such meaning-rich domains of experience as circus culture, the world of professional wrestling, strip tease, Xmas, McDonald’s, cannibalism, cross-species communications with chimpanzees and other animals, the subcultures of surfers and gays, the story of Little Red Riding Hood, Disneyworld, tourism, road signs, the language of wine-tasting, scientific writing, and language itself as a semiotic system. Working at the interface of nature and culture, semiotics provides a perspective on the whole of human experience and, ultimately, on the nature of consciousness itself. It is foundational to our understanding of knowledge and experience for there is nothing in thought which is not first possessed as a sign and not ultimately communicated as a sign. By addressing knowledge and experience this way, semiotics goes to the foundations for all of the sciences and the humanities. By asking about the roles played by signs in our lives and in contemporary culture, we open up nearly every aspect of communication to study. Students from all disciplines are invited to attend.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Undergraduates:
Cobley, Paul, Litza Jansz (illustrator), and Richard Appignanesi. Introducing Semiotics. New York: Totem Books, 1997.
Danesi, Marcel: Sign, Thought, and Culture: A Basic Course in Semiotics. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1998.
Graduates:
Cobley, Paul, Litza Jansz (illustrator), and Richard Appignanesi. Introducing Semiotics. New York: Totem Books, 1997.
Danesi, Marcel and Paul Perron. Analyzing Cultures: An Introduction & Handbook. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
Graduate Projects (choose ONE only):
Burton, John W. Culture and the Human Body: An Anthropological Perspective. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 2001
Lutz, Catherine and Jane L. Collins. Reading National Geographic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
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CAS 444: SEMIOTICS AND THE STUDY OF MEANING SCHEDULE (.pdf version) - PART I. Basic notions and Views.
- (1) THE MEANING SEEKING SPECIES. The symbolic species; co-evolution of language and the brain; the evolution of consciousness; the cognitive imperative; implications for the study of language; definition of culture in semiotic terms. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 1]
- (2) THE SIGN. Distinction between general and cultural semiotics; semiotics and communication science; semiotics and cognitive science; interdisciplinary aspects of semiotic analysis; principles of semiotic analysis; the science of signs and the signs of science. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 2]
- (3) FUNDAMENTALS OF SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS. The signifying order; semiosis, representation, and modeling; the sign; types of signs; denotation, connotation, and annotation; structural systems and relations; codes and texts and ciphers; dimensionality; effects of signs on perception and thinking; the capacity for artifice and deceit. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 2, 3]
- PART II. The Semiotic Study of Culture.
- (4) NONVERBAL SEMIOSIS AND COMMUNICATION. Cultural codes, conditioning, and nonverbal communication; kinesic, facial, proxemic, tactile, and gestural codes; hair and there: the semiotics of hair styles; clothing as an extension of bodily semiosis; nudity as the paradigmatic counterpart of clothing; the spell of the sensuous; dancing as bodily art; the exotic and the erotic: universal desires and the cultural coding of interests. [Readings: Danesi, Chapters 4, 8] Exemplars: Video, "A World of Gestures."
- (5) FIRST TEST
- (6) THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN CULTURAL SYSTEMS. Origins of language theories reviewed; language and human nature; zoo-semiotics and cross-species communication; language and thought; naming; the roles of writing and discourse in cultural systems; writing degree zero and the language of mathematical systems; gendered communications: "male and female speak"; gay subculture and language; flags of the past: history, literacy, and the signs of the times; illiteracy and the sign of the savage. [Readings: Danesi, Chapters 5, 14] Exemplar: Video, "Discovering the Human Language: Colorless Green Ideas."
- (7) THE ROLE OF METAPHOR IN SHAPING CULTURAL GROUPTHINK. Definition of metaphor; metonymy and irony; relation between metaphor and language grammar; role of metaphor in the signifying order; metaphors we live by; travel as metaphor; "wine-i-ness" and signs of the wine; scientific writing; Heisenberg's search for language to describe the world of quantum mechanics. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 6]
- (8) THE CULTURAL MEANINGS OF TERRITORIES, SPACES, AND BUILDINGS. Shelters and territories; maps as representational systems; spatial codes (public, private, sacred); architectural codes; the desert as sign; changing signs: the desert smells like rain; islands: portraits of miniature worlds; the sign of the sea; things to do in the ocean: surfer subculture. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 10] Exemplar: Video: "It's All True: The Lost Masterpiece."
- (9) THE IMPORTANCE OF ART TO CULTURE AND TO HUMAN LIFE GENERALLY. Theories of art; performance art (theater, music, ritual); visual art; cinema; postmodern art; the culture and biology of beauty; tattoo you; makeup, piercing, and mutilation; circus culture and the art of mythic display. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 13] Exemplar: Music from Enigma, "MCMXC a.D."
- (10) SECOND TEST
- (11) THE CULTURAL MEANINGS OF OBJECTS, ARTIFACTS, AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES. Objectification; dolls; objectified consciousness; objectified art (pop art); food; Bury or bite? Bodies as objects, corpses; the sign of the cannibal; the raw and the cooked; citizen cannibals and the problem of truth; photos as text; prisonhouse of language; more on the capacity for artifice and deceit; fictions for the masses: Disneyworld and the Disneyfication of America. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 9]
- (12) THE CULTURAL FUNCTIONS OF NARRATIVE. Narrative representation; parables and the literary mind; theories of myth; Barthes on myth; human evolution as narrative; Little Red Riding Hood; the novel; the comics; ethnopoetics; Brazilian stories on a string; Santa signs and narrative. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 7] Exemplar; Video, "Letters Not About Love."
- (13) THE NATURE OF MEDIA; TELEVISION AND ADVERTISING. History of bourgeois perception — media and the senses; nature and history of television and advertising; TV and advertising as social texts; McLuhan’s view of media; analyzing the messages in ads; effects of media on individuals and cultures; more on mythic display: dangerous theater and the world of professional wrestling. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 12]
- PART III. A Practical Synthesis.
- (14) HOW TO CONDUCT SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS. Macrosemiotic analysis; microsemiotics analysis; final thoughts on the Nature versus Nurture controversy. [Readings: Danesi, Chapter 15]
- THIRD TEST.
CAS 544: SEMIOTICS AND THE STUDY OF MEANING SCHEDULE (.pdf version)
PART I. Basic notions and Views.
(1) THE STUDY OF CULTURE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE FIELD OF SEMIOTICS. The symbolic species; co-evolution of language and the brain; theories explaining why and how culture may have originated; the evolution of consciousness; implications for the study of language; definition of culture in semiotic terms; definition of cognate notions (society, civilization, race, ethnicity, and nation); the primary spheres that compose the institutional orb of culture. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 1]
(2) THE SEMIOTIC APPROACH TO CULTURE. Historical background to the semiotic study of culture; distinction between general and cultural semiotics; semiotics and communication science; semiotics and cognitive science; interdisciplinary aspects of semiotic analysis; principles of semiotic analysis; the science of signs and the signs of science. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 2] - (3) FUNDAMENTALS OF SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS. The signifying order; semiosis, representation, and modeling; the sign; types of signs; denotation, connotation, and annotation; structural systems and relations; codes and texts and ciphers; dimensionality; effects of signs on perception and thinking; the capacity for artifice and deceit. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 3]
- PART II. The Semiotic Study of Culture.
- (4) NONVERBAL SEMIOSIS AND COMMUNICATION. Cultural codes, conditioning, and nonverbal communication; kinesic, facial, proxemic, tactile, and gestural codes; hair and there: the semiotics of hair styles; clothing as an extension of bodily semiosis; nudity as the paradigmatic counterpart of clothing; the spell of the sensuous; dancing as bodily art; the exotic and the erotic: universal desires and the cultural coding of interests. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 4] Exemplars: Video, "A World of Gestures."
- (5) FIRST TEST
- (6) THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN CULTURAL SYSTEMS. Origins of language theories reviewed; language and human nature; zoo-semiotics and cross-species communication; language and thought; naming; the roles of writing and discourse in cultural systems; writing degree zero and the language of mathematical systems; gendered communications: "male and female speak"; gay subculture and language; flags of the past: history, literacy, and the signs of the times; illiteracy and the sign of the savage. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 5] Exemplar: Video, "Discovering the Human Language: Colorless Green Ideas."
(7) THE ROLE OF METAPHOR IN SHAPING CULTURAL GROUPTHINK. Definition of metaphor; metonymy and irony; relation between metaphor and language grammar; role of metaphor in the signifying order; metaphors we live by; travel as metaphor; "wine-i-ness" and signs of the wine; scientific writing; Heisenberg's search for language to describe the world of quantum mechanics. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 6]
- (8) THE CULTURAL MEANINGS OF TERRITORIES, SPACES, AND BUILDINGS. Shelters and territories; maps as representational systems; spatial codes (public, private, sacred); architectural codes; the desert as sign; changing signs: the desert smells like rain; islands: portraits of miniature worlds; the sign of the sea; things to do in the ocean: surfer subculture. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 7] Exemplar: Video: "It's All True: The Lost Masterpiece."
- (9) THE IMPORTANCE OF ART TO CULTURE AND TO HUMAN LIFE GENERALLY. Theories of art; performance art (theater, music, ritual); visual art; cinema; postmodern art; the culture and biology of beauty; tattoo you; makeup, piercing, and mutilation; circus culture and the art of mythic display. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 8] Exemplar: Music from Enigma, "MCMXC a.D."
- (10) SECOND TEST
- (11) THE CULTURAL MEANINGS OF OBJECTS, ARTIFACTS, AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES. Objectification; dolls; objectified consciousness; objectified art (pop art); food; Bury or bite? Bodies as objects, corpses; the sign of the cannibal; the raw and the cooked; citizen cannibals and the problem of truth; photos as text; prisonhouse of language; more on the capacity for artifice and deceit; fictions for the masses: Disneyworld and the Disneyfication of America. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 9]
- (12) THE CULTURAL FUNCTIONS OF NARRATIVE. Narrative representation; parables and the literary mind; theories of myth; Barthes on myth; human evolution as narrative; Little Red Riding Hood; the novel; the comics; ethnopoetics; Brazilian stories on a string; Santa signs and narrative. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 10] Exemplar; Video, "Letters Not About Love."
- (13) THE NATURE OF MEDIA; TELEVISION AND ADVERTISING. History of bourgeois perception — media and the senses; nature and history of television and advertising; TV and advertising as social texts; McLuhan’s view of media; analyzing the messages in ads; effects of media on individuals and cultures; more on mythic display: dangerous theater and the world of professional wrestling. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 11]
- PART III. A Practical Synthesis.
- (14) HOW TO CONDUCT SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS. Macrosemiotic analysis; microsemiotics analysis; final thoughts on the Nature versus Nurture controversy. [Readings: Danesi and Perron, Chapter 12]
- THIRD TEST.
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