MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Graduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

CLT5200

Structuralism and semiotics

Proposed to be offered next in 1997

Millicent Vladiv-Glover

Synopsis The subject will try to show students how to turn literary structuralist theory into a workable tool of critical analysis. Structuralism and semiotics as critical systems will be traced back to their historic origins, the Russian formalist school, C S Peirce and F de Saussure. The critique/heritage of structuralism and post-structuralism and deconstruction will also be examined, with special emphasis on the work of Julia Kristeva.

Assessment (8 points) Three essays (2000 words each): 30% each + Seminar participation: 10%

Assessment (12 points) Three essays (3000 words each): 30% each + Seminar participation: 10%

Prescribed texts

• Bakhtin M The dialogic imagination U Texas P, 1990
• Barthes R `From work to text' in J V Harari (ed.) Textual strategies Cornell U P, 1979
• Barthes R Image music text Fontana, 1984
• Culler J Theory and criticism after structuralism Routledge, 1983
• Eco U The role of the reader: Explorations in the semiotics of the text Indiana U P, 1984
• Elam K The semiotics of theatre and drama Methuen, 1980
• Halle M (ed.) Semiosis: Semiotics and the history of culture Michigan Slavic Publications, 1984
• Hawkes T Structuralism and semiotics Methuen, 1977
• Kristeva J Desire in language Columbia U P, 1980
• Kristeva J Language: The unknown Columbia U P, 1989
• Kristeva J Revolution in poetic language Columbia U P, 1984
• Lemon L T and Reais M J Russian formalist criticism: Four essays Nebraska U P, 1965
• Lotman Iu and others (ed. A D and A S Nakhimovsky) The semiotics of Russian cultural history Cornell U P, 1985
• Lotman Iu The structure of the artistic text tr. R Vroon, Ann Arbour Michigan Slavic Publications, 1977
• Matejka L (ed.) Sound sign and meaning: Quinquagenary of the Prague Linguistic Circle Ann Arbour Michigan Slavic Publications, 1976
• Saussure F de (ed. C Bally and A Sechehaye) Course in general linguistics tr. W Baskin, Philosophical Library, New York, 1959