Class Semiotic

The study of the processes of signification, the subject of Semiology or Semiotics, is a decisive area in the scientific understanding of communication phenomena and has long been part of the curricula of these courses. Its proposal is attractive because it allows us to become aware of how our every thought, no matter how intimate, every gesture or behaviour, right up to the most complex cultural phenomena in which we find ourselves, is in fact a form of meaning production. The whole world of life, every human being, is understood by this discipline as a complex and fascinating phenomenon of constructing meanings. They are what cement our identity because, from the perspective of semiotics, all human cultures are historical responses and strategies for the symbolic construction of a world that makes sense.  This discipline allows us to learn how meaning is produced and therefore aims to make us better readers and communicators.

I. Peirce's semiotics: the action of the sign, the sign in action

1. Who was Charles Sanders Peirce? The researcher and the context of American Pragmatism
2. Triadic notion of sign: representer, object, interpretant
3. Phaneroscopy: Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness
4. Trichotomy of the sign
5. Exercises: applied Peircian semiotics

II. Saussure's linguistics and the proposal for a general semiology

1. Who was Ferdinand de Saussure? Saussure and the foundations of structuralism in the social sciences and humanities
2. The sign and Saussure's linguistic system
3. Signifier/Signified
4. Language/Speech
5. Denotation/connotation
6. Linguistic value
7. Paradigm/Syntagm

III. TEXT/DISCOURSE: Politics of Representation

1. Denotation and connotation: The system of Myth according to Roland Barthes
2. Criticising structuralism: The watchword, according to Deleuze&Guatari
3. The school of cultural studies and semiotics: the contributions of Stuart Hall.

Group work in class to apply knowledge. Use of the moodle platform for tests and learning games during lessons.

Peirce, “Ícone, índice e símbolo” in Semiótica. São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva.

Peirce, “Correspondência: Trechos de cartas a Lady Welby”, in Semiótica e Filosofia. São Paulo: Editora Cultrix (pp. 135-146)

Rodrigues, Adriano Duarte. (1991). Introdução à Semiótica. Lisboa: Editorial Presença 

Santaella, Lúcia (2001). Teoria Geral dos Signos. Pioneira Thomson Editora. (todo o livro)*

Santaella, Lúcia (2002). Semiótica Aplicada. Publicidade, Arte, Mídia, Vídeos, Literatura, Instituições. São Paulo: Editora Pioneira Thomson.

Saussure, Ferdinand. Curso de Linguística Geral. Lisboa: D. Quixote (pp. 32-46; 121-140)

Barthes, Roland. Elementos de Semiologia. Lisboa: Edições 70

Barthes, Roland. Mitologias. Lisboa: Edições 70 [1º edição 1957] (pp. 181-223)

Hall, S. (2016). Cultura e representação (W. Miranda, Daniel; Oliveira (trans.)). Editora PUC-Rio.

Lima, G. B., & Carvalho, D. T. de. (2012). Análise semiótica aplicada às marcas. Revista Electrônica de Administração (Online), 11(2), 1–13.