28378 - Methodologies of Analysis (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will have acquired advanced methodological skills in the semiotic analysis of different types of texts: novels and hort stories, newspaper articles, advertising campaigns, photographs, websites, consumer objects.

Course contents

The aim of the course is to give students an introduction to the main approaches to textual semiotics.
The course will provide students with the tools to analyze different types of textuality (literature, film and audiovisual media, artworks, media and advertising content, spaces, objects, practices).
In particular, the methods of analysis developed by the generative semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas and the interpretative semiotics of Umberto Eco will be explored, without neglecting the contributions to the structural analysis of texts developed by such authors as Roland Barthes, Gerard Genette and Yuri Lotman.
Topics covered in the course:

• Semiotics and textual analysis: the “empirical and descriptive vocation” of semiotics.
• Some basic concepts of semiotics: sign, text, narrativity, enunciation.
• Generative and interpretative semiotics: two complementary models for text analysis.
• Greimas' narrative semiotics: canonical narrative scheme and generative path of meaning.
• Umberto Eco's narrative-interpretative model: reader model and interpretative cooperation.
• Semiotics of the visual and audiovisual.
• Syncretic semiotics.
• Enunciation and enunciation practice: Towards a semiotics of discourse.
• Semiotics of Passions: from the Aisthesis to the Aesthetic.
• Sociosemiotics and the semiotics of practices.

Readings/Bibliography

Handbook:

• Pozzato, Maria Pia (2001) Semiotica del testo: Metodi, autori, esempi, Roma: Carocci.

Mandatory readings:

• Eco, Umberto (1979) Lector in fabula. La cooperazione nei testi narrativi. Milano. Bompiani.
• Fabbri, Paolo (2001) La svolta semiotica, Bari: Laterza (Nuova edizione accresciuta. A cura di Gianfranco Marrone, La Nave di Teseo, 2024).

Suggested readings:

• Basso, Pierluigi (2003) Confini del cinema. Strategie estetiche e ricerca semiotica, Milano: Lindau (semiotics of cinema).
• Bertrand, Denis (2000) Basi di semiotica letteraria, Roma: Meltemi (handbook of Greimassian approach).
  
• Lorusso, Anna Maria; Paolucci, Claudio; Violi, Patrizia (2012) Narratività. Problemi, analisi, prospettive, Bologna: BUP (Reflections on narrativity).
• Manetti, Giovanni (2008) L'enunciazione. Dalla svolta comunicativa ai nuovi media, Milano: Mondadori (on enunciation).
• Marrone, Gianfranco (2001) Corpi sociali. Processi comunicativi e semiotica del testo, Torino: Einaudi critical introduction to sociosemiotics).
  
• Marsciani, Francesco; Zinna, Alessandro (1991) Elementi di semiotica generativa, Bologna: Esculapio (classic introduction to generative semiotics).
• Panosetti, Daniela (2015) Semiotica del testo letterario, Roma: Carocci (semiotics and literary analysis).
• Pezzini, Isabella (1998) Le passioni del lettore. Saggi di semiotica del testo, Milano: Bompiani (on the semiotics of passions by Greimas).
• Paolucci, Claudio (2020) Persona: Soggettività nel linguaggio e semiotica dell'enunciazione, Milano: Bompiani (new theoretical proposal of a theory of enunciation with examples of semiotic analyses).
• Polidoro, Piero (2008), Che cos’è la semiotica visiva, Roma: Carocci (effective introduction to visual semiotics).
• Volli, Ugo (2005) Laboratorio di semiotica, Bari-Roma: Laterza (handbook with many examples).

Primary literature for Semiotic of text (selection):

• Barthes, Roland (2019) Sul racconto. Una conversazione inedita con Paolo Fabbri. Postfazione di Gianfranco Marrone, Bologna: Marietti 1820.
• Eco, Umberto (1979) Lector in fabula. La cooperazione interpretativa nei testi narrativi, Milano: Bompiani Nuova edizione La Nave di Teseo).
• Fontanille, Jacques (2010) Pratiche semiotiche. Pisa: Edizioni ETS.
• Floch, Jean Marie (1992) Semiotica, marketing e comunicazione, Milano: FrancoAngeli.
• Greimas, A.J.; Courtes, Joseph (1979) Semiotica. Dizionario ragionato della teoria del linguaggio, Milano: Bruno Mondadori.
• Greimas, Algirdas J. (1984) Del Senso 2. Narrativa, modalità, passioni, Milano: Bompiani.
• Landowski, Eric (1989) La società riflessa, Roma: Meltemi.
• Lotman, Juri (1985) La semiosfera. L’asimmetria e il dialogo nelle strutture pensanti, Venezia: Marsilio.

Other texts will be suggested by the teacher during class.

 

 

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures and analysis activities in class. Due to the applied nature of the course, students are strongly encouraged to attend in person.

Assessment methods

Two alternative examination modalities are offered. The student can choose betweena written examination:

• a written test with open questions to be taken in a computer laboratory
• a paper of at least 10 pages (about 25000 characters) in which the analysis of a specific text is proposed

Evaluation criteria

• Excellent marks (28 to 30 cum laude) are awarded for exams that demonstrate a perfect mastery of the subject and semiotic metalanguage, accompanied by the ability to reflect critically and the original use of analytical tools.
• Very good marks (24 to 27) are awarded for examination papers that demonstrate a good understanding of the topic and the ability to apply the relevant tools.
• Satisfactory marks (18 to 23) are awarded for examination papers that demonstrate basic knowledge and the ability to apply theories and methods of analysis.
• Gaps in preparation, lack of appropriate technical language and inability to apply the analytical tools will result in a deficient grade.

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders are entitled to special adjustments according to their condition, subject to assessment by the University Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD. Please do not contact teachers or Department staff, but make an appointment with the Service. The Service will then determine what adjustments are specifically appropriate, and get in touch with the teacher. For more information, please visit the page:
https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

 

Teaching tools

Multimedial equipment of the class.

Slides and other teaching materials will be available on the dedicated section of "Virtuale" platform.

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Mazzucchelli