1. Literary Criticism
Structuralism

2. What does this mean?

3. Or this?

7. History
 1960s, Swiss linguist Ferdinand de
Saussure influenced this theory through
examination of language as a system of
signs, called semiology

8. So what’s semiology?
 A sign consists of two parts
 Signifier
 Signified

9. What’s semiology?
 People know when they see
It means they must stop.

10. Semiology
I stop my car.

11. Semiology
 If we think of this linguistically…

12. Implications
 Symbols or signs are the vehicles through
which we conceptualize things
 So what does this say about the
relationship between language and
thought?
 Can you have thought without language?

13. Implications
 'The French word mouton may have the same
meaning as the English word sheep; but it does
not have the same value. There are various
reasons for this, but in particular the fact that the
English word for the meat of this animal, as
prepared and served for a meal, is not sheep but
mutton. The difference in value between sheep
and mouton hinges on the fact that in English
there is also another word mutton for the meat,
whereas mouton in French covers both'

14. Different kinds of signs
 Symbol/symbolic: the signifier does
not resemble the signified. It is
arbitrary - so that the relationship must be
learnt: e.g. language in general
(alphabetical letters, punctuation marks,
words, phrases and sentences), numbers,
morse code, traffic lights, national flags

15. Different kinds of signs
 Icon/iconic: the signifier is perceived
as resembling or imitating the
signified (recognizably looking, sounding,
feeling, tasting or smelling like it) e.g. a
portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model,
onomatopoeia, metaphors

16. Different kinds of signs
 Index/indexical: the signifier is not
arbitrary but is directly connected in
some way (physically or causally) to the
signified - this link can be observed or
inferred

17. Structuralism
 Structuralists believe that if readers don’t
understand the signs, they may misread a
text.

18. Strengths
 This theory does focus on the author’s
intent, and does focus on an objective
interpretation without clouding the text with
a subjective or emotional interpretation

19. Weaknesses
 Difficult to know who controls the meaning
of a text.
 Reader looks only at linguistic structure and
is not permitted to have an emotional
attachment to the text.
 Not open to different interpretations

20. Practice
Signifier Signified
A black cat
24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa
Stanley Cup
April 1st
Colour green in traffic
light
Nod of head

21. Questions
 What are three key signifiers in this text that if you
didn’t know what they signified, you wouldn’t
understand the text.
 For each signifier, write down what it signifies
 If you didn’t know what a signifier signified, where
would you go for information?
 What historical information or information about
the author did you need to know to understand
the meaning of the signifiers?