LESSON 12: EVOLUTION OF SEMIOTICS

Saussure's lack of interest in the social context of meaning-creation meant an important area of study was neglected and to some extent Pierce’s notion of the interpretant went some way towards completing this gap.  Meaning is produced as the result of interaction between the reader and the text.

Barthes believed that there was a further level of signification.  The interaction of the object and the interpretant takes place in a context and that social context has a direct impact upon the meaning.

BARTHES : A literary theorist whose work moved him into areas of language, meaning and then semiotics.  His key idea is that the making of meaning requires not only the sign [Saussare] and the interpretant [Pierce] it also needs an awareness of the social context of the ‘reading’.

 

Much of Barthes writing developed theories of the impact of the culture in which a text was created as significant to its construction but also its reception by audiences which added layers beyond the influence of the writer or the creator of the media product.

 

His work lies beyond modern media ideas of the para-text.

The PowerPoint Evolution of Semiotics explores these theories by using a range of images and media products to explore the concept of how desire is seen in society and how it has been expressed by different cultures, expressing the contemporary view of those audiences.