Description
Book SynopsisDating back to antiquity, semiotics is both a technique and a science that aims to understand the nature of meaning. An academic discipline in its own right, semiotics uses signs, such as words and symbols, to think, communicate, reflect, transmit, and preserve knowledge.
Since the initial publication of The Quest for Meaning in 2007, the world has changed dramatically with the advent of online culture, new technologies, and new ways of making signs and symbols. Updated to reflect these many changes, the second edition includes a comprehensive chapter on the use of semiotics in the Internet age. Written in a student-friendly style, featuring examples from everyday life, the book explains what semiotics is all about and why it is so important for gaining insights into our elusive and mysterious human nature.
Table of ContentsPreface 1. What Is Semiotics? 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Historical Sketch 1.3 The Science of Meaning 1.4 Two Fundamental Models of the Sign 1.5 The Current Practice of Semiotics 1.6 Semiotics in the Global Village 1.7 Further Reading 2. Signs 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Defining the Sign 2.3 Symptoms and Signals 2.4 Icons 2.5 Indexes 2.6 Symbols 2.7 Names 2.8 Body, Mind, and Culture 2.9 Further Reading 3. Structure 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Structure 3.3 Associative Structure 3.4 Structural Economy 3.5 Post-Structuralism 3.6 Modeling 3.7 Further Reading 4. Codes 4.1 Introduction 4.2 What Is a Code? 4.3 Opposition and Markedness 4.4 Types of Codes 4.5 Codes and Perception 4.6 Further Reading 5. Texts 5.1 Introduction 5.2 What Is a Text? 5.3 Narrative Texts 5.4 Visual Texts 5.5 Digital Texts 5.7 Texts, Mind, and Culture 5.8 Further Reading 6. Representation 6.1 Introduction 6.2 What Is Representation? 6.3 Representation and Myth 6.4 Online Knowledge Representation 6.5 Representation and Reality 6.5 Further Reading 7. Semiotics in the Internet Era 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The Simulacrum 7.3 Memes 7.4 Emojis 7.5 The Global Brain 7.6 Posthumanism 7.7 Further Reading 8. Applications 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Clothing 8.3 Food 8.4 Visual Rhetoric 8.5 The Quest for Meaning 8.6 Further Reading Glossary of Technical Terms Index
