Semiotics Books - Page 12

After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation

George Steiner

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When it first appeared in 1975, After Babel created a sensation, quickly establishing itself as both a controversial and seminal study of literary theory. In the original edition, Steiner provided readers with the first systematic investigation since the eighteenth century of the phenomenology and processes of translation both inside and between languages. Taking issue with the principal emphasis of modern linguistics, he finds the root of the "Babel problem" in our deep instinct for privacy and territory, noting that every people has in its language a unique body of shared secrecy. With this provocative thesis he analyzes every aspect of translation from fundamental conditions of interpretation to the most intricate of linguistic constructions.

For the long-awaited second edition, Steiner entirely revised the text, added new and expanded notes, and wrote a new preface setting the work in the present context of hermeneutics, poetics, and translation studies. This new edition brings the bibliography up to the present with substantially updated references, including much Russian and Eastern European material.

Elements of Semiology

Roland Barthes

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Editorial Review:

"In his Course in General Linguistics, first published in 1916, Saussure postulated the existence of a general science of signs, or Semiology, of which linguistics would form only one part. Semiology, therefore aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification . . . The Elements here presented have as their sole aim the extraction from linguistics of analytical concepts which we think a priori to be sufficiently general to start semiological research on its way. In assembling them, it is not presupposed that they will remain intact during the course of research; nor that semiology will always be forced to follow the linguistic model closely. We are merely suggesting and elucidating a terminology in the hope that it may enable an initial (albeit provisional) order to be introduced into the heterogeneous mass of significant facts. In fact what we purport to do is furnish a principle of classification of the questions. These elements of semiology will therefore be grouped under four main headings borrowed from structural linguistics: I. Language and Speech; II. Signified and Signifier; III. Syntagm and System; IV. Denotation and Connotation."--Roland Barthes, from his Introduction

On Literature

Umberto Eco

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A Semiotics Professor on Various Aspects of Literature 4 out of 5 stars.
32 of 33 people found this review helpful.

This collection of essays and lectures by Umberto Eco and translated by Martin McLaughlin contains Eco's reflections on several aspects of literature, from the (more or less) tangible influence of Borges on the author's own writing to different approaches to literary criticism to how he himself came to write his novels. Though the essays themselves range in subject matter, all contain the underlying currents of Eco's academic forte, semiotics, that difficult-to-define discipline that drives the author's intellect.

The eighteen essays/lectures concentrate on specific authors and works ("A Reading of the Paradiso", "Wilde: Paradox and Aphorism") as well as on more general topics ("On Symbolism", "Intertextual Irony and Levels of Reading"). As you might gather from the titles, this book is not light reading and reflects not only the density of Eco's prose but also of his ideas. Some essays succeed better than others. "Borges and My Anxiety of Influence" is a fascinating, almost conversational glimpse into the workings of Eco's literary mind while his more direct "How I Write" is deadened by self-analysis. "The Power of Falsehood", perhaps more than any of these essays, exposes the obsessions that gave rise to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, and Baudolino; it delves into the marriage of history and false ideas. Unfortunately, the opening piece, "On Some Functions of Literature," seems almost elemental and not deep enough for someone of Eco's academic caliber. Readers of his novels will recognize in many of these essays the driving force behind the fiction. Intellectuals and literary critics especially will want to make their slow, careful way through much of what Eco has to say.

Although I don't agree with some of Eco's premises, I still found this book intriguing, both for its ideas and the way they are presented. Eco knows his material, and his passion for the subject matter can be infectious. Recommended for serious students of literature and semiotics, but not for the casual reader.

Editorial Review:

In this collection of essays and addresses delivered over the course of his illustrious career, Umberto Eco seeks "to understand the chemistry of [his] passion" for the word. From musings on Ptolemy and "the force of the false" to reflections on the experimental writing of Borges and Joyce, Eco's luminous intelligence and encyclopedic knowledge are on dazzling display throughout. And when he reveals his own ambitions and superstitions, his authorial anxieties and fears, one feels like a secret sharer in the garden of literature to which he so often alludes.

Remarkably accessible and unfailingly stimulating, this collection exhibits the diversity of interests and the depth of knowledge that have made Eco one of the world's leading writers.

The Art of Nonfiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers

Ayn Rand

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A remarkable series of lectures on the art of creating effective nonfiction by one of the 20th century's most profound writers and thinkers-now available for the first time in print.

Culled from sixteen informal lectures Ayn Rand delivered to a select audience in the late 1960s, this remarkable work offers indispensable guidance to the aspiring writer of nonfiction while providing readers with a fascinating discourse on art and creation. Based on the concept that the ability to create quality nonfiction is a skill that can be learned like any other, The Art of Nonfiction takes readers through the writing process, step-by-step, providing insightful observations and invaluable techniques along the way.

In these edited transcripts, Rand discusses the psychological aspects of writing, and the different roles played by the conscious and subconscious mind. From choosing a subject to polishing a draft to mastering an individual writing style-for authors of theoretical works or those leaning toward journalistic reporting-this crucial resource introduces the words and ideas of one of our most enduring authors to a new generation.

Introducing Semiotics, Third Edition

Paul Cobley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Not So Hot 2 out of 5 stars.
22 of 25 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this title because I was interested in getting a firm grounding in semiotics, with a rich historical background thrown in, and I've had really good luck doing just this with other books in the Intriducing series. I ended up greatly disappointed, to the tune of not even finishing the book (a rarity for me).

The explanations are sadly lacking. For instance, the author spends a whole two pages giving definitions for terms such as icon, symbol, and index. Often, definitions for crucial terms like these are offered in the form of too-short and too-simple examples.

The book also tends to style over substance. Sentences are needlessly obtuse. More time is spent on comparing and contrasting barely differing viewpoints of minor figures in the field that were never explained in the first place. I felt like I was in a poorly-done parody of some post-post-modernistic semiotics seminar.

I still love the Icon Books "Introducing..." series, but I'll look elsewhere for a semiotics primer.

Editorial Review:

Outlines the development of sign study from its classical precursors to contemporary post-structuralism.

Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition

Umberto Eco, Alastair McEwen

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Philosophy alive 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 19 people found this review helpful.

I read the review of Simon Blackburn trashing the book: Eco made a few mistakes concerning the two dogmas of empiricism (he confused Davidson's work with Quine's first dogma). So I am sure many readers hesitated after a review by such a rigorous big gun thinker as Blackburn.
When I started reading the book I was taken aback by the combination of depth and the vividness of the style. Eco is sprightly and alive, something that cannot be said of many philosophers dealing with the subject of categories.
The notion of categories is not trivial: you need a simple conditional prior to identify an object; it is a simple mathematical fact. You need to know what a table is to see it in the background separated from its surroundings. You need to know what a face is so when it rotates you know it is still the same face. Computers have had a hard time with such pattern recognition. A PRIOR category is a necessity. This was Kant's intuition (the so-called "rationalism"). This is also the field of semiotics as initially conceived. Eco took it to greater levels with his notion of what I would call in scientific language a compression, a "simplifation". This leads to the major problem we face today: what if the act of compressing is arbitrary?
Not just very deep but it is a breath of fresh air to see such a philosophical discussion nondull, nondry, alive!

Editorial Review:

How do we know a cat is a cat? And why do we call it a cat? How much of our perception of things is based on cognitive ability, and how much on linguistic resources? Here, in six remarkable essays, Umberto Eco explores in depth questions of reality, perception, and experience. Basing his ideas on common sense, Eco shares a vast wealth of literary and historical knowledge, touching on issues that affect us every day. At once philosophical and amusing, Kant and the Platypus is a tour of the world of our senses, told by a master of knowing what is real and what is not.

The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and Language

Mark Turner

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

We usually consider literary thinking to be peripheral and dispensable, an activity for specialists: poets, prophets, lunatics, and babysitters. Certainly we do not think it is the basis of the mind. We think of stories and parables from Aesop's Fables or The Thousand and One Nights, for example, as exotic tales set in strange lands, with spectacular images, talking animals, and fantastic plots--wonderful entertainments, often insightful, but well removed from logic and science, and entirely foreign to the world of everyday thought. But Mark Turner argues that this common wisdom is wrong. The literary mind--the mind of stories and parables--is not peripheral but basic to thought. Story is the central principle of our experience and knowledge. Parable--the projection of story to give meaning to new encounters--is the indispensable tool of everyday reason. Literary thought makes everyday thought possible. This book makes the revolutionary claim that the basic issue for cognitive science is the nature of literary thinking.

In The Literary Mind, Turner ranges from the tools of modern linguistics, to the recent work of neuroscientists such as Antonio Damasio and Gerald Edelman, to literary masterpieces by Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Proust, as he explains how story and projection--and their powerful combination in parable--are fundamental to everyday thought. In simple and traditional English, he reveals how we use parable to understand space and time, to grasp what it means to be located in space and time, and to conceive of ourselves, other selves, other lives, and other viewpoints. He explains the role of parable in reasoning, in categorizing, and in solving problems. He develops a powerful model of conceptual construction and, in a far-reaching final chapter, extends it to a new conception of the origin of language that contradicts proposals by such thinkers as Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker. Turner argues that story, projection, and parable precede grammar, that language follows from these mental capacities as a consequence. Language, he concludes, is the child of the literary mind.

Offering major revisions to our understanding of thought, conceptual activity, and the origin and nature of language, The Literary Mind presents a unified theory of central problems in cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. It gives new and unexpected answers to classic questions about knowledge, creativity, understanding, reason, and invention.

Performance Analysis: An Introductory Coursebook

Colin Counsell

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Editorial Review:

This revolutionary introductory performance studies coursebook brings together classic texts in critical theory and shows how these texts can be used in the analysis of performance. Each reading is clearly introduced and further clarified through innovative, carefully tested exercises and activities.

Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe

Hayden White

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A must for any historian 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 26 people found this review helpful.

Hayden White's Metahistory takes the reader deeply into the winding roads of history writing. From Hegel to Croce, he reviews and analizes the many different ways history was written in the nineteenth century and it's impact and influence in today's historiography. A must for any historian, but a little too deep - and perhaps boring- for those not familiar with history's theory and philosophy.

Highly sophisticated 4 out of 5 stars.
18 of 26 people found this review helpful.

Hayden White's METAHISTORY is a sophisticated analysis of historical methodology in the nineteenth century.

Without a doubt, the book is brilliant. White analyzes the poetic and linguistic structure behind the writings of historians and philosophers of history. He focuses on the works of Michelet, Ranke, Toqueville, Burckhardt, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Croce. The result is a compelling look at how the methodological structure of historical writing changed through the course of the nineteenth century.

However, there is a major drawback to the work. White frequently uses a number of poetic and linguistic terms that are not standard fare for the average reader. For example, unfamiliar terms such as Metonymy, Synecdoche, Metaphor, Organicist, and Contextualist are used to describe the methodology behind various historical works. I frequently found myself lost and flipping back pages to find the definition of a particular term. This was an un-needed difficulty; the terms only served to obscure White's otherwise clear and logical arguments.

In conclusion, this highly sophisticated work is a brilliant piece of historical analysis. However, it would have been much more readable without the difficult language.

Living Legacies: How to Write, Illustrate, and Share Your Life Stories

Duane Elgin, Coleen Ledrew

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Living Legacies 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

All of us have personal life stories to share, but many of us don't really know how to best preserve those stories for future generations. Living Legacies: How to Write, Illustrate, and Share Your Life Stories, from Duane Elgin and Coleen LeDrew, is filled with practical suggestions on how you can "uncover the seeds of stories in your life, [and] follow a simple process for writing them."

Elgin and LeDrew on focus on what they call the "life story," which is more than photographs or a biography. Life stories delve into feelings about what happened or why it mattered. They incorporate visual images and memorabilia as well as the written word. As well as sharing events with others, "when we record our life stories, we enter a process of self-reflection that often leads to new insights about our lives."

Recording a life story can be very simple, and often only takes only a page or two. Elgin and LeDrew provide step-by-step instructions for deciding what stories to share and how to get to the essence of each one. They also explain how to choose the visual images that best illustrate the story, with lots of examples.

Stories can be simply typed out on plain paper, or they may incorporate fonts and backgrounds that enhance them. The authors explain how to choose what materials and techniques that best communicate what you want and how to best use your personal information and style.

Life stories aren't just for the older generations-one chapter is devoted to helping children tell their special stories.

The authors present their guidelines in a practical, easy-to-understand manner that allows lots of room for individual creativity. They also provide a resource guide with additional tips, organizations, and vendors of speciality materials.

Your life is filled with unique and priceless experiences. Living Legacies provides all the information and tools you need to share those experiences with others.

Editorial Review:

Creating stories allows individuals and their families to see and honor their connection to older and younger generations. The authors believe that through such writing, individuals not only communicate the meaning and spirit of their lives to their loved ones but also gain perspective on the larger world. This beautifully designed and illustrated guide escorts readers through the process of writing down their stories and illustrating them with photographs, memorabilia, and other images, including digital format. By offering readers questions to draw out events and memories, the book emphasizes a person's full life, in all of its highs and lows, magic moments, and simple pleasures. The book's supportive approach will inspire even first-time writers to forge a collection of stories to share and pass on to the important people in their lives.