A Structural Semiotic Perspective on Narratology

Mohammad B. Aghaei

Abstract


Semiotics principally investigates and explores the production and function of signs and sign systems as well as the methods of their signification. It is mainly concerned with how a sign signifies and what precedes it at deeper level to result in the manifestation of its meaning. For this purpose, it offers a set of unified principles that underlie the construction, signification and communication of any sign system. The literary text as a sign system serves as an artfully constructed fictional discourse that signifies only when a competent reader interprets its textual signs that are basically foregrounded by the application of different literary devices. Hence, the literary semiotics seeks to explain how the textual components get their significative value within a given literary discourse. In order to do so, the conventions, discursive forces and cultural aspects of the text should be taken into consideration in explaining the processes of signification.


Keywords


Signification; Deconstruction; Assimilation; Accommodation; Lingual aesthetics; Fictionality

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

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