MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

CRT4200

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 in poststructuralism and deconstruction will also be examined, with special emphasis on the work of Julie Kristeva.

Assessment (8 points) Written (6000 words): 100%

Assessment (12 points) Written (9000 words): 100%

Prescribed texts

• Bakhtin M The dialogic imagination Texas U P, 1990
• Barthes R `From work to text' in Textual strategies ed. J V Harari, Cornell U P, 1979
• Barthes R Image music text Flamingo 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 Contributions, 1984
• Hawkes T Structuralism and semiotics Methuen, 1977
• Kristeva J Revolution in poetic language Columbia U P, 1984
• Kristeva J Desire in language Columbia U P, 1980
• Kristeva J Language the unknown Columbia U P, 1989
• Lemon L T and Reais M J Russian formalist criticism: Four essays Nebraska U P, 1965
• Lotman Iu, Ginsburg L and Uspenskii B The semiotics of Russian cultural history (eds A D and A S Nakhimovsky) 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 Contributions, 1984
• de Saussure F Course in general linguistics ed. C Bally and A Sechehaye; tr. W Baskin, Philosophical Library, 1959