Theatre, Narrative and

Semiotic Analysis

Critical contexts Oct 2011

Tony Fisher
A country road. A tree. Evening.
 Intro: What is semiotics?

Semiology is a science that studies

the life of signs within society
(Saussure, 1966, 16)
 Section 1: semiotics: the science of the sign

Semiotics can best be defined as a science

dedicated to the study of the production of
meaning in society. As such it is equally
concerned with processes of signification
and with those of communication, i.e., the
means whereby meanings are both
generated and exchanged. Its objects are
thus at once the different sign systems and
codes at work in society and the actual
messages and texts produced thereby
(Elam, 2006, p.1)
 -- Semiotics is a science studying

the social production of meaning

the process of signification
the process of communication
interpretative acts

Its objects include sign systems,

codes, messages and texts, language,
units of discourse, etc
 Semeiotikos (in Greek) means: an
interpreter of signs
 Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure,
(1857-1913)
Saussures theory of the Sign in a nutshell:

The linguistic sign unites, not a thing

and a name, but a concept and a sound
image (Saussure, 1966, p.66)
Saussures diagram:

S
(mental) concept
{abstract}
_________________________
s
{material}
Sound-image
(e.g., phonational act)
Tree sign = tree-concept
_____________
Arbor
Sign = Signified
__________
Signifier
 The signifier (signifiant) is the material
shape of a word in speech: its phonic
component, i.e. the sequence of letters or
phonemes articulated in an utterance or
speech act, e.g. mgpai = magpie

The signified (signifi) - the ideational

component, is the concept or object that
appears in our minds when we hear or read
the signifier e.g. a small black and white bird
 the winged horse
__________________
Pegasus
A country road. A tree. Evening.
The moon shines bright. In such a night as
this,
when the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees
and they did make no noise, in such a night
Troilus methinks mounted the Trojan walls,
and sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents
where Cressid lay that night
Is this a dagger, which I see before me,
the handle toward my hand? Come let
me clutch
thee:-
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still
Youre a father. Your names Andy.
Youre forty-six, say, youre six foot two, say. Your
lips are cracked. Your fingernails are dirty. Youre
wearing a crumpled Gore-tex jacket. Your trousers
are muddy, say, your shoes are muddy. You have
tremors. Youre unshaven. Your hair is greying. You
have a bloodshot eye
Lord: Throca movousus, cargo, cargo,
cargo.
All: Cargo, cargo, villiandua par corbo,
cargo.
 The arbitrariness of the sign:

snow, neige, snee, sniegas,

sneachta, nieve,
Semiotics and ideology critique
Myth or ideology is an unconscious code that naturalises what is in
reality a culturally produced message
-- Barthes writes in Myth Today: ideology or myth is a second-order
semiological system (Barthes, 1983, p.114)
Semiology of theatre and performance:

A. Shared codes 1: narrative semiotic

analysis

The narratives of the world are

numberless (Barthes, 1977, p.79)
either a narrative is merely a rambling
collection of events, in which case
nothing can be said about it or else it
share with other narratives a common
structure which is open to analysis
(Barthes, 1977, p.79)
The syntagmatic or horizontal level of
meaning

Syntagma is a word or phrase forming a

syntactic unit

Producing an orderly collection of

statements
 Better ordered, i.e., the order of the
sentences leads progressively to clarify the
meaning of the exchange

Everyday exchanges are not so neatly

segmented; in drama there are no false
starts, non sequiturs, digressions, trivialities

The dialogue is composed in order to reveal

something
 In dramatic dialogue, every utterance, every
line counts is significant, is designed to
carry the action forward

Each utterance in this dialogue is dynamic

and imposes a strict temporal ordering, that
binds the underlying action into a coherent
unit
Paradigmatic analysis of narrative offers
a second level of description

Paradigm = analysis according to a

pattern or a class or type
 1. Indexical analysis: (index = pointer,
e.g. index finger)

Includes, classification of characterial

and social attributes of characters
such as age/ sex/ social status and so
on
An indices is any signifier that serves
to transmit a descriptive or adjectival
meaning, e.g. Skilling is filthy rich
(drinks champagne)
 2. Actantial analysis (c.f. Vladimir Propp and
A.J. Greimas)

analysis of characters according to

their paradigmatic functions

Most clearly demonstrated in fairy

tales, where we find the vast number
of fairy tales can be reduced to a
limited and finite number of character
functions, e.g.
Propps eight character types:

Hero, donor of a magical agent, helper,

villain, dispatcher, princess/prize,
father, false hero

Greimas actant model:

Subject/Object; Donor/receiver;
Helper/opponent
 3. Sequential analysis

i.e., analysis and classification of actions and

their formation into sequences in their
psuedo logical schema

Cardinal functions hinge points of the

narrative, e.g. a discovery is made
Catalyzers units of action that fill in the
space between the hinge points (the
function of catalyzers is parasitic on the
Cardinal function)
 Jiri Veltrusk (Prague School):
All that is on the stage is a sign
(1940, in Elam, p.6)