Representation & Roland Barthes ’ Semiotics After New Criticism & Before Michel Foucault

Outline 0. Context: After New Criticism & Before Michel Foucault 1. Representation – Discussion Questions  Representation and Production of Meaning Representation and Production of Meaning  Theories of Representation Theories of Representation  De Saussure Re-Considered: Contribution & Limitations De Saussure Re-Considered 2. Semiotics:  Major principles in semiotic readings Major principles in semiotic readings  Sign systems: fashion as an example Sign systemsfashion as an example  Semiotic reading (1): denotation and connationdenotation and connation  Semiotic reading (2): first and second-order signification. (literal language and meta-language)first and second-order signification  Myth today defined Myth 3. Examples for Discussion: Images of Nature in some Landscape Paintings and AdsImages of Nature

What did we cover last week? After New Criticism & Before Michel Foucault Course Outline Week (1): Identity, History and (the functions and kinds of) Historiography e.g. “Time in a Bottle” “Leda and the Swan” Eternity vs. Catastrophe Week (2): Constructionist Views of Representation e.g. Semiotics readings; “Snowed up” Slaughterhouse V: chap 1 Week (3): Discourse Analysis Foucault: “What is an Author?” Discourse Analysis (1) Slaughterhouse V Chaps 2-4

New Criticism: Major Views A poem is autonomous, with an ontological status. Intentional Fallacy, Affective Fallacy Poetry offers a different kind of truth (poetic truth) than science. Heresy of Paraphrase ( 詩不可以被翻譯 )

New Criticism: Major Views Organic unity – with the parts interrelated and forming a wholeness; -- “ Form is content; content is form. ” “Text and the Text Only” Approach

Two different views of a literary work 1. A work: Autonomous, unified in meaning; the meaning remains stable and can be transmitted through time and space;  New Criticism or Formalism 2. A text: textualized, interacting with the other texts around it in the historical context(s) it is written and read.  New Historicism & Post- structuralism  A (historical) text as a signifying process. Image source:

New Criticism Historicized: The theories after New Criticism: Five Main Points Politics is pervasive (implying power relations), 任 何事情都是政治的， Language is constructive (but not reflective) of reality, 語言為建構， Truth is provisional (or contingent, no universal, non-changing truth), 真理是臨時建構， Meaning is contingent (context is important determinant of meanings), 意義是因時／地制定的， Universal human nature is a myth 人性的普遍性是 虛構的. Do you agree?

New Criticism  New Historicism, or Cultural Materialism, Discourse Analysis History is brought back to literary studies and literature de-centered. Both are in a network of text. The assumptions of history – influenced by Michel Foucault.

New Historicism: principles (2010 Spring textbook) 115 Every expressive act (speech or text) is embedded in a network of material practices (production of texts or other types of productions); participate in the economy they describe. Language as context: Every act of unmasking, critiquing, and opposition uses the tools it condemns and risks falling prey to the practice it exposes; (e.g. The Tempest, Midnight’s Children, etc.) Literature de-centered: That literary and non- literary texts circulate inseparably; Truth is provisional; human nature, a myth. No discourse,... gives access to unchanging truths, nor expresses inalterable human nature (more later)

New Historicism: methods Investigates three areas of concern: 1. the life of the author; 2. the social rules or power relations found within a text; 3. The work ’ s historical situation (of production and circulation) in the text.  Blurring the boundaries between text and context. Avoiding sweeping generalization of a text or a historical period, a new historicist pays close attention to the conflicts and the apparently insignificant details in history as well as the text.

New CriticismRepresentation Discourse Analysis

What is Representation? Not Re-Presentation ( 原音重現，身歷其境, 歷史現 身 ) “Representation means using language to say something meaningful about, or to represent, the world meaningfully, to people.” (15) 1. Using language (system of representation); 2. To produce meanings (another system of representation) about (make connections among) things, and 3. To communicate them to some people.

What are the two systems of representation in representation (meaning production)? 1. Signs  signifier (e.g. ‘love’ ‘I’) 2. Conceptual System (pp ; e.g. love  ‘romantic love,’ ‘puppy love,’ ’maternal love,’ etc.)  the signified Codes (pp ) Referent

What ’ s hidden in this stereogram  Conceptual System Shapes formed because of 1) two- eye differences (wall-eyed; cross- eyed); 2) the gestalt laws of organization (e.g. figure and ground)

What ’ s hidden in this stereogram  ANSWER: BUNNY!

Different Perspectives = Different Conceptual Systems

1. Conceptual System = the Context of a sign, which determines its meaning 2. Sign system– image or English letters (liar)

Two Systems at Work in Representation: What kind of room is this? A restaurant or a tea house? Signs: Red color, paper lantern, floor-to-ceiling windows, sofas, pillows, wood desk, ‘bamboo room,’ etc.

What kind of room is this?

The Lava Room From Star Nightclub

Representation= Meaning Production What makes the difference? Different conceptual frameworks, or conceptual systems. Different Languages Are these meanings absolute or relational? Why? signifier signified

Meaning – Essential or Relational? I AM 生命的意義在 創造宇宙繼起的生命。 生活的意義在 增進人類全體的生活﹔ 1. “I” – no essence? 2. Meanings – one truer/better than the other? –produced by ourselves or a system? 1. “I” – no essence? 2. Meanings – one truer/better than the other? –produced by ourselves or a system? * NoteNote

Note: Relativism  Is there an essential definition of our selves? e. g. 生為中國 / 劉家／輔大人，死為中國／ 劉家／輔大魂（鬼﹚。 Self(-Definition) –not essential nor unchangeable;  -- is relational (“I am A” implies “I am not B”). (i.e. binarist thinking may be at work.)  -- is usu. determined by our value systems, if not given to or imposed on us by our society.  -- can be contradictory, with so many conceptual systems we live in. Relational view of meaning is not relativism.  Relativism: Everything is ok and nothing matters.

Theories of Representation Reflective approach –  Some truth and functions to it (in communication, in knowledge acquisition)  Representation as “Re-Presentation” Intentional approach – Can we decide the meanings of what we say? (p. 25)  Representation as Self-Expression ( 得意而忘言；言止於心 意深處 ) Constructivist approach –  Things don’t mean; we construct meanings about them by using different systems of representation.  Representation as Construction: We don’t speak language; language speaks us. (Activity 4)(Activity 4

De Saussure: Contribution & Limitations (pp. 32 – 35) Contributions to the Constructionist Theory of Representation  Arbitrary relations between signifier and signified   Meanings in language can never be fixed; they are open to changes by ‘context’ (historical, social or personal).  Langue vs. parole  the social part of language Limitations:  too exclusive focus on language;  Language is not a closed system.  semiotics –the study of signs (languages in a broader sense)

Semiotics & Roland Barthes

Major principles 1. All the cultural products and activities read as process or results of signification. No meaning is inherent or natural. 2. There are more than one (arbitrary) relations between signifiers and signified. (iconic --resemblance, indexical --cause, symbolic – arbitrary p. 20). 3. There are more than one level of meanings.  denotation and connotation.

What kinds of signs are they? Iconic = airport = Church = crossroad Symbolic indexical

Sign System: Fashion as an Example Fashion codes (signs + concepts)  (Textbook pp ) Fabric: Silk= feminine, denim= masculine, casual, cotton = comfortable, khaki= military, formal. skirt (+ silk)= feminine; jeans (+ cotton T- Shirt) =casual or masculine

Sign System: Rules of Selection and Combination All social practices as sign-systems and thus are open to cultural interpretation (or de-mystification).  e.g. the meaning of a jacket defined by its contexts.  e.g. the “langue” of clothes (selection & combination) System: a. blouse, shirt, T-shirt ; b. skirt, trousers sentence: 1. blouse + skirt + high heeled shoes X snickers 2. blouse + jeans + snickers  X not for concert

Fashion and Myth: from denotation to connotation; description to prescription “... Mist gold, pure gold, and black gold are all flashing in full glamour since most collections are heavily weighted toward evening cloths with an ostentatious dressing chic. If gold is too much for you, don’t worry, for here comes the backup that makes you in style as well, the color of camel! As usual, camel has always been playing its role of warming up the winter, which has been so elegantly carried out by the blazing gold as it is this year. “ (Sophie Ko)

Fashion: from language to myth “Leather, of course, is something that can’t be left out in each winter.” “Fur, for sure, is a must, especially for collars, ” “As for trousers, they really do need to be slim- fitting and skinny-legged to be chic this season! ”  myth: 紫醉金迷、世紀末的華麗 (Sophie Ko)

Semiotic reading (1): Denotation and Connotation e.g. Panzani pasta (p. 40) 1. Denotation: “the real objects in the scene” The signifiers: “these same objects photographed.” 2. Connotation: “half-opened bag”  spilling out onto the table  freshness, the domestic 3. Italianness (red green white) 4. ‘a total culinary service” 5. Arrangement like “still life” painting

a signifier + signified = Semiotic reading (2): Different levels of signification: primary signification & secondary signification primary signification: Secondary signification sign (full)- -denotation Sign ( empty )/ Form + content = sign --connotation

Signifier + signified = ([home]) Semiotic reading (2): Different levels of signification: primary signification & secondary signification primary signification: Secondary signification sign (full)- -denotation Sign ( empty )/ Form + content = sign --connotation: Homepage, country cottage, etc. Barthes’ examples: rose, black pebble.

Signifier + signified = Young negro, in uniform, saluting, With eyes uplifted, fixed on the tricolor Myth primary signification: Secondary signification sign (full) — denotation ([Black solider saluting a French flag]) Patriotism/submission Sign ( empty )/ Form + content = sign --connotation: France as a Great empire, loved by all her “ sons. ” colonialism militariness

“ Myth ” : distortion, naturalizing The form(on the secondary level) does not suppress the original meaning, it only impoverishes it, it puts it at a distance...  myth hides nothing: its function is to distort, not to make disappear  Target: Myth has an imperative, buttonholing character:...it is I whom it has come to seek....  For this interpellant speech is at the same time a frozen speech: at the moment of reaching me, it suspends itself, turns away and assumes the look of a generality; it stiffens, it makes itself looks natural and innocent