Structuralism/semiotics

What is structuralism

Theoretical approach that draws on the work of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure

Structuralism suggests that there is an…

Underlying structure to culture and that we need to identify and understand this structure as a means to engage in cultural analysis

Structure makes _ possible

Meaning

Originally, a structuralist approach centered on

Language, however, subsequent thinkers began applying the approach to other phenomena, popular media texts (Barthes) and practices

An example of a form of structuralism

Media genre as it looks for recurring storylines (a structure) that helps us to develop expectations of particular genres

Saussure was interested in

How language worked and how we learned to make sense of it in everyday situations

What are the two parts Saussure divides language into

• Signifier: form of the sign (the word cat)

• Signified: meaning (four-legged feline creature)

Together the signifier and the signified make up the

Sign

Relationship between signifier and signified is

Arbitrary (result of an agreed cultural convention)

For Saussure, meaning is established through

Difference (ex: traffic light)

Division of language

• Langue (structure): the system of language, the rules and conventions that organize it, language as a social institution

• Parole (performance): individual utterance, individual use of the language

Structuralists are interested in making explicit the 

Rules and conventions (langue of structure) that govern the production of meaning (acts of parole)

Semiotics is the study of

Signs: one way in which they do so (method)

Who was Roland Barthes

French literary theorist and cultural studies scholar who used semiotics to interrogate French popular culture in his book Mythologies

Roland Barthes applied semiotics to a range of media texts in order to

Make visible the “what-foes-without-saying”, or the ideological meanings embedded within media images

Roland Barthes treated popular culture objects and media texts as

Signs that can be read for meaning

Roland Barthes political purpose

Challenge the bourgeoise norm

Barthes argued that Saussure’s model provides only

Primary signification and suggests the need for secondary signification

What was Saussure’s model

Signifier + signified = sign

Primary signification produces

Denotation: a simple basic descriptive level of meaning in which most people would agree

A secondary signification is produced when

A sign becomes a signifier, producing a different, or connotative meaning

Connotation refers to

Secondary level of meaning that is wider, not based upon description, and more opent o interpretation or different readings across the public

What is necessary in order to understand the connotative meaning

Some social knowledge/code (historical and culture)

Barthes particularly interested in

Secondary level of signification where ideological meanings are formed

Primary level signifier for a ring

The word ring

Primary level signified for a ring

Description of a ring

Primary level sign (denotation) of a ring

The ring

Secondary level signifier of a ring

The ring

Secondary level signified of a ring

Engagement

Secondary level sign (connotation) of a ring

Marriage, romantic, love, wealth

Who used the term myth

Barthes

Barthes used the concept of myth to understand how

Meanings are produced in popular culture

Myth definition

Ideology understood as a body of ideas and practices, which, by actively promoting the values and interests of dominant groups in a society, defend and the prevailing structures of power

Connotation of myth

Myth (ideology) is produced for consumption

What is polysemic

signs have the potential to signal multiple meaning 

What is counter myth

Multiple readings of signs are possible at the connotative level

Example of Connotation and Denotation

Cover of Paris Match

Connotative meaning in Cover of Paris Match

• Anyone can serve in France

• People who France previously colonized now want to be a part of their country and serve

According to Barthes, what is the connotation of this image?

• French Impartiality/Colonialism

Another example of sign, denotation, connotation, myth?

McDonalds ad, 2010