Trying to make sense of things

IMPORTANT NOTICE

***Blog post for Renaissance figures, in relation to upcoming Seminar presentation, will be posted by Friday evening.***

"And that's not all..." Well, those would be my famous last words anyway, because just when you think it's over, it isn't. It really isn't. So once again it's another rushed and updated post for the latest lecture/seminar on Key Concepts. Russell may seem to be a distant figure from my blog at the moment, but as you see above, by the end of this week it will be back with a vengeance! Perhaps being somewhat dramatic...

Once again, it was another interesting session. Key terms perhaps I have learned (or re-learnt, as phrases from my distant past in A-Level English Language made a surprise comeback to my studies):

• Denotation/Connotation: Quite when you start thinking of all the types of abstract and wonderful adverts out there. Denotation is the sum of what we see as a subject itself. The firm and prescribed definition. Note: Colours are a good example to think about. Connotation is the social/cultural interpretation of an object. For example what do these exhibits mean:

        Exhibit 1                                                      

Exhibit 2

 

• Langue/Parole: Langue, being the brainchild of Saussure, is the concept which our system of language works in. Parole is the system for words we do select and place within the sound, image or writing we look at. Dog being the primary example, this translates also into:

Chien=French

Kata=Urdu

• Symbolic/Iconic/Indexical: C.S. Pierce's central theory, Symbolic images are those images in certain cultures we are likely to understand, depending upon what you are aware of. For those who have taken a driving theory exam, you should know this pretty well:

Otherwise, this is just a red circle, graffited with a white line!

Iconic, on the otehr hand, is what something suggests. If you by a box of Frosties for instance, Tony the Tiger is the symbolic image, as he is only the mascot. But the cereal! If there was no bowl of cereal of the box, what is the closed meaning. Free tiger cub in the box perhaps? Indexcial imagery is the representation we point with our index finger (for those who don't know, it's the one after the thumb). Poppies for instance, grow wildly in most environments, quite weed like. But yet we respect them. Not like the common thistle! Poppies are our symbols for armistice in WWI, whereas you're hardly likely to see the same meaning in France!

As a fan of Agatha Christie facsimiles, I now leave you to ponder the meaning of the first published cover and the mass paperback released nowadays to compare with. If you don't know the story, what does this mean to you as you decode the text in front of you: