Semiotics

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521300131.006

4 - Semiotics

from STRUCTURALISM: ITS RISE, INFLUENCE AND AFTERMATH

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Stephen Bann

Edited by

Raman Selden

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Stephen Bann: Affiliation:
University of Kent

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Summary

Defining the field

The term ‘semiotics’, derived from the Greek word for ‘sign’, represents not one particular school or tendency within the recent development of criticism, but a loosely connected group of schools and tendencies. Moreover these associated practices contribute to the development of a critical method that is far from being confined to the literary text as its primary subject matter. In the preface to a recent anthology sub-titled ‘Semiotics around the world’, the editors begin by quoting Eisenstein: ‘The forward movement of our epoch in art […] must be to blow up the Chinese Wall that stands between the primary antithesis of the “language of logic” and the “language of images".’ In their view, the distinctive feature of semiotics is that it considers ‘the process by which things and events come to be recognized as signs by a sentient organism’ (Bailey, Matejka and Steiner, The Sign, p. vii). As we shall see, this very broad definition inevitably implies that semiotic investigation takes place over a wide spectrum of cultural practices, involving visual as well as verbal signs and extending from the specialized analysis of the literary text to the consideration of a great diversity of signifying phenomena.

Semiotics is therefore an imperialistic critical practice. Even though it may be based securely within the traditional areas of literary study, it has a tendency to outstep previously established boundaries in its quest for meaning. Jonathan Culler was no doubt justified in claiming in 1981 that: ‘Literature is the most interesting case of semiosis for a variety of reasons’ (Culler, Pursuit of Signs, p. 35).

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism , pp. 85 - 109

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300131.006 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1995

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