An Introduction to Applied Semiotics: Tools for Text and Image Analysis

An Introduction to Applied Semiotics presents nineteen semiotics tools for text and image analysis. Covering a variety of different schools and approaches, together with the author’s own original approach, this is a full and synthetic introduction to semiotics. This book presents general tools that can be used with any semiotic product. Drawing on the work of Fontanille, Genette, Greimas, Hébert, Jakobson, Peirce, Rastier and Zilberberg, the tools deal with the analysis of themes and action, true and false, positive and negative, rhythm narration and other elements.

The application of each tool is illustrated with analyses of a wide range of texts and images, from well-known or distinctive literary texts, philosophical or religious texts or images, paintings, advertising and everyday signs and symbols. Each chapter has the same structure – summary, theory and application, making it ideal for course use.

Covering both visual and textual objects, this is a key text for all courses in semiotics and textual analysis within linguistics, communication studies, literary theory, design, marketing and related areas.

Louis Hébert is a professor of literature at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR, Canada). His research focuses primarily on semiotics (textual and visual), interpretive semantics, the methodology of literary analysis, Magritte and Buddhism.

His publications include Cours de sémiotique [Course in Semiotics] (Paris, Classique Garnier), L’analyse des textes littéraires: une méthodologie complète [Literary Text Analysis: A Complete Methodology] (Paris, Classiques Garnier) and Introduction à la sémantique des textes [An Introduction to the Semantics of Texts] (Paris, Honoré Champion). He is the editor or co-editor of five collective books. He is the editor of the Dictionnaire de sémiotique (http://www.signosemio.com/documents/dictionnaire-semiotique-generale.pdf), as well as of the bilingual website Signo―Theoretical Semiotics on the Web (www.signosemio.com) and an online database of nearly all of the works and themes of René Magritte (www.magrittedb.com).