Recapping Signs of Life Introduction and “Writing about Popular Culture” Eng 107

Key Ideas semiotics - the study of signs - not new or forbidding - coined by Charles Sanders Pierce - semiology founded by Ferdinand Saussure (aka structuralism) (9) “the essential approach to interpreting popular culture signs is to situate signs within systems of related phenomena with which they can be associated and differentiated” (12) “No one can absolutely prove the truth of an argument in the human sciences; what you can do is persuade your audience by including pertinent evidence in an abductive reasoning process” (17) mythology: value system or ideology (18); our cultural mythology “is a kind of lens that governs the way we view the world” (18)

Principles of Semiotics (19-20) cultural semiotics treats human behavior itself--not what people say about their behavior but what they actually do--as signs. the meaning of signs can be found not in themselves but in their relationships (both differences and associations) with other signs within a system. To interpret an individual sign, then, you must determine the general system to which it belongs. Things have both denotative meanings (what they are) and connotative meanings (what they suggest as signs); semiotics moves beyond the denotative surface to the connotative significance.

Principles of Semiotics continued Arriving at the connotative significance of a sign involves both abduction (a search for the  most likely explanation or interpretation) and overdetermination (the multiple causes behind a cultural phenomenon). What we call social “reality” is a human construct, the product of cultural mythologies or value systems that intervene between our minds and the world we experience. Such cultural myths reflect the values and ideological interests of their builders, not the laws of nature or logic. Or: “Behavior is meaningful”; “Everything is connected”; “Don’t take things at face value.”

Active Reading Questions (22) What is the author’s primary argument? Can you identify a thesis statement, or is the thesis implied? What key terms are fundamental to that argument? What evidence does the author provide to support the argument? Is it relevant and specific? Reliable? What underlying assumptions shape the author’s position? Are counterarguments considered? What style and tone does the author adopt? What is the genre of the piece? What is the intended readership of this selection, and does it affect the author’s reasoning or evidence?

Questions for Conducting a Semiotic Analysis (28) what is the denotative meaning of your subject? What’s the topic’s connotative significance? What associated signs belong to that system? What differences do you see in those signs? What abductive explanation do you have for your observation? What is the most likely explanation for the patterns that you see?

Questions for Analyzing Images (31) What is the appearance of the image? What kind of image is it? Who is the intended audience? What emotions does the image convey? What is the most prominent element in the composition? Where does the image’s layout lead your eye? Does the image include text? Does the image call for a response?