Social semiotics - Hardcover

Robert Hodge

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0745602533 ISBN 13: 9780745602530

Publisher: Polity Press, 1988

Synopsis

"Social Semiotics" is a textbook in communication and cultural studies. It offers a comprehensive approach to the study of the ways in which meaning is constituted in social life. Hodge and Kress begin from the assumption that signs and messages - the subject matter of semiotics - must always be situated within the context of social relations and processes. They then show what is involved in analyzing different kinds of messages, from literary texts, TV programmes and billboards to social interactions in the family and the school. While presenting an assessment of different perspectives, Hodge and Kress also develop their own approach, demonstrating how semiotics can be integrated with the social analysis of power and ideology, space and time, and gender and class. "Social Semiotics" is illustrated with examples and written in a way which does not presuppose prior knowledge of the field.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Semiotics was defined by Ferdinand de Saussure in the early years of the twentieth century as 'the science of the life of signs in society.' Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress here confront the conceptual difficulties that have limited its growth as a field of inquiry and demonstrate how it can be integrated with the social analysis of power and ideology, and of gender and class.

Review

"Clearly presented and amply illustrated with specific examples including photographs, charts, and models. Among the topics discussed in detail are context as meaning, styles as ideology, and the social meaning of narrative."―Choice, April 1989

Edition details

• Publisher: Polity Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0745602533
• ISBN 13: 9780745602530
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 285