U5 Focus Questions Flashcards
How is a sign reflexive?
Reflexivity in signs involves self-reference or self-awareness, where the sign draws attention to its own status as a sign or to the process of signification itself. By being reflexive, signs disrupt the illusion of transparency and invite the audience or reader to reflect on the complex relationship between signs, meaning, and the contexts in which they are used. Reflexive signs draw attention to the signifying process itself, often encouraging critical analysis and interpretation of the text or discourse in question
What is a methodic activity, and what role does it play in the production of meaning?
Refers to a systematic and organized process or procedure that individuals engage in to achieve a particular goal or outcome. They provide individuals with systematic frameworks, tools, and processes to engage in the production of meaning. They structure and organize the cognitive processes, facilitate analysis and synthesis, contextualize interpretations, and allow for iterative refinement. By employing methodic activities, individuals can navigate the complexities of meaning-making and generate deeper, more insightful understandings of texts, experiences, and phenomena
What does it mean for a sign to function as a problem-solution? How are intelligibility and actionability involved in this?
When a sign functions as a problem-solution, it means that the sign is used to address or resolve a particular problem or challenge. The sign serves as a means of communication or representation that offers a solution or potential course of action in response to a perceived problem or need. An intelligible sign ensures that the problem and its solution are clearly communicated and understood, while actionability motivates the audience to take concrete steps or make decisions in response to the sign’s message
In terms of assumptions, methodology, and results, how does analyzing a text as a problem-solution differ from a poststructuralist reading of the text?
Analyzing a text as a problem-solution assumes that the text contains a problem or challenge that requires resolution. It presumes that the text offers a clear and intended solution to that problem, and the analysis aims to uncover and understand this solution within the text. A poststructuralist reading challenges the notion of fixed meanings and stable identities. It assumes that meaning is not fixed within a text but rather a result of complex, shifting relationships and power dynamics. The goal of problem-solution analysis is to reveal and understand the intended problem and solution within the text. A poststructuralist reading aims to destabilize and challenge fixed meanings and assumptions.
What is ethnogenealogy, and what potential implications does this approach bring to the practice of lit criticism?
It combines genealogy and anthropology to explore the origins, migrations, and cultural heritage of different ethnic groups. It can provide valuable insights into the cultural context and historical background that shape literary works, contributes to a more nuanced understanding of representation, authenticity, and cultural diversity within literature, enrich the analysis of intertextuality and allusion in literature, inform decolonial approaches to literary criticism, encourages readers to consider how their own identities and histories intersect with the themes and narratives of the text.
What is indexicality, and how is it related to critical theory?
Refers to the capacity of a literary text to point to or index specific elements of reality outside the text itself. Allows literature to refer to and engage with the external world, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality. By understanding the indexical nature of signs, critical theorists can analyze how signs function as markers of meaning, referring to specific objects, experiences, or concepts. It relates by contributing to the analysis of meaning construction, representation and power, contextual analysis, and reflexivity. It offers insights into the relationship between signs and their referents, revealing the socio-cultural, historical, and ideological dimensions of meaning production and interpretation.
With reference to the case studies in Chapter 10 and 11 of Semiotic Investigations, what does McHoul mean when he refers to “fundamental limits of communication”?
Case studies of Singing in the Rain filming and Batman. Communication is never fully transparent or unproblematic, and there are several factors that introduce limitations and difficulties into the communication process. Contextual constraints, semiotic complexity, power dynamics, and ambiguity
What does it mean to open up or close down a text?
A closed down reading of a text occurs when it is read critically in a way that follows certain constraints and restrictions. Opening up a text expands the amount of things considered to influence it and the meaning it holds
What is the difference between critical theory and ethnomethodology? What common ground (if any) exists between them?
Critical theory examines the ways in which power, domination, and social inequalities shape society, culture, and individual experiences. Ethnomethodology is more individual and focuses on the study of the methods and practices through which social order and meaning are produced in everyday interactions. Both emphasize reflexivity and are concerned with understanding and critiquing social order, albeit at different levels
How does McHoul’s New Formalism differ from New Criticism? Is his new formalism typical of reader-oriented criticism, a variant of it, or something quite different?
Reader-oriented criticism highlights the active and subjective role of the reader in constructing meaning from a text. New Formalism emphasizes the importance of formal elements in literary analysis while incorporating the role of the reader. Both recognize that the reader’s engagement, interpretation, and contextual knowledge influence the meaning derived from the formal elements of the text. However, McHoul’s New Formalism also maintains a focus on formal analysis, incorporating the reader’s response within the examination of textual features and structures.
