CPCF 1F25 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: New Criticism, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault

• School: Brock University
• Department: Communication, Popular Culture and Film
• Course: CPCF 1F25
• Professor: Justin Sully

Document Summary

Representation: the act of putting ideas into words visuals, audio, or any other system of signs, always distinct form thing being represented. A representation is always encoded: receiver must decode and interpret the communication to understand the idea. Signification: using signs to make meaning, sign: anything that represents something with something else; or, anything with meaning (e. g. words, images, sounds, objects) Ferdinand de saussure: signifier: the experienced, sensory or phenomenal aspect of the sign (sound, image, gesture, touch, figure, pattern, etc. , signified: the idea or mental concept drawn. Not (exactly) the same thing as meaning. Defining characteristics of saussurean sign and signification: concept: (cid:498)arbitrary(cid:499) relationship between signifier (cid:523)(cid:498)sound-image(cid:499)(cid:524) and, ordered by (cid:498)difference(cid:499) (cid:498)binary opposites(cid:499)/binary oppositions (yes means nothing, (cid:498)language(cid:499) vs. (cid:498)parole(cid:499) (cid:523)language and speech, ~ structure vs. Implications: without no) (cid:498)the prison (ouse of language(cid:499) (cid:498)language speaks us(cid:499) Agency and structure: a key concern in the study of communication.