COMM 2P20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Roland Barthes, Nickelback, Northwest Passage

• School: Brock University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMM 2P20
• Professor: Baxter Moore

Document Summary

Early settlers trying to find a passage across canada to the pacific ocean. Mentions john franklin who lost his life in the quest for the northwest passage. The song was the favourite to become canada"s new national anthem. Like those great explorers of the past, he is making this trek accross canada, only to find that he really wanted to be home. Conforms to many of the structures of myth. Starts with ferdinand de saussure, swiss linguist. Investigated the structures through which language works. We can only make sense of those labels by talking about them in relation to their difference. Introduces the idea of the sign consisting of signifier (word/ symbol) and signified (its meaning) Also notes that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is often arbitrary (like a cat - the word cat does not have anything to do with the animal or the sounds it makes)