In class this week

This week in class we went over Semiology, from signifier (object; physical sign) to Signified (what it means; the message, the meaning). Thursday we focused our discussion on Semiotics, Structuralism, and Post in relation to De Saussure, Barthes and Macherey. After initially reading Macherey's work, I was very confused but the group discussion today helped me understand what he was expressing in taking meaning from silence. The term Perversion which is defined as turning the text inside out, filling in the gaps, and goes on to say text is not a unified whole but we must bring something to it. Also the term Writerly text, open text, which encourages our participation, brought me into a more clear understanding of the reading.

On Tuesday we talked about language as a system of pure values and how it involves sound and ideas. How Philosophers and linguists have agreed that without the help of signs, we would be unable to make a clear-cut and consistent distinction between the two ideas. The term Langue as being the Systems and Parole as being the usage is a way used to differentiate language; they are separate entities and structurally we can take them apart and understand them. What we discussed in class this past week was a great way for all of us to learn how to take more out of the readings we have and will be reading the remainder of this course as well as life in general. An important idea also mentioned would be that we live in a world were we are not spectators but participants and as participants we are obtaining knowledge and having involvement in the world around us through all forms of mediums.

One movie we are all to watch is the new Inception film. I have heard that watching it once isn’t enough in order to really grasp the whole scheme of the movie and these terms will definitely help myself more critically and fully interpret the message whether or be internal in the work or through the silence in it.