U4 Key Terms

Question 1

Sign

Answer 1

Something which stands to somebody for something. For a sign to ‘mean’ it must bear relation to something else. Composed of the signifier and signified

Question 2

Not-signs

Answer 2

Everything that is not the sign itself. Something other than an object that is related or connected. Offers a dynamic, historical, and complex idea of the sign

Question 3

Reading-as-such/Reading-in-general

Answer 3

As-such is reading in terms of the space of effectivity or the limits of reading production and in-general is generalized sense that reading is a stable activity that is not context dependent. Reading as such means that the text affects us in the way we think and live both during and after we read it, reading in general means we simply read and do not learn or reflect on it. It simply tells us who we are and where we are meant to be.

Question 4

Reading-as-subjectivity

Answer 4

Sees one’s relation to literature as historically situated. Seeing things in the spaces between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the text, where broad historical and local community relevances meet and have their effects

Question 5

Signifier

Answer 5

Any word, gesture, image, sound, etc. that communicates a meaning. The material vehicle of the sign

Question 6

Signified

Answer 6

The concept/meaning being portrayed. The mental equivalent (what it calls to mind)