VCC101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Polysemy, Roland Barthes, Structural Linguistics
9 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Idea that elements of a culture are part of an interrelated whole and can be understood via this overarching system/structure. The shared set of values and beliefs that exist in a given society. The way certain concepts and values are made to seem natural. Semiology, semiotic: the study of how signs make meanings. Look at complexity of meaning in signs from everyday life, not just art. Came out of marxist critiques of capitalism in western europe. Analyzes hegemonic or ideological uses of images. Marxists, feminists used semiotics (structuralism) to critique symbolic structures of capitalism, Ideology = meaning in the service of power patriarchalism. Linguistic signs are arbitrary: there"s no necessary relationship between signifier and the signified. What"s important is the structure of language - the relationships between signs. Influenced lacan (psychoanalysis), levi-strauss (anthropology), barthes (literary/cultural theory) Looked at the structure of myths in his own culture.
