Average customer rating:
- Good overview of a field that has alot of failings
- If you really want an overview of the subject at hand...
- Great introduction and more
- First Among Many
- Offering Basics without being simplistic.
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Semiotics: The Basics
Daniel Chandler
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Introducing Semiotics, Third Edition (Introducing)
ASIN: 0415351111 |
Book Description
Following the successful Basics format, this is
the book for anyone coming to semiotics for the first time. Using jargon-free language and lively, up-to-date examples, Semiotics: The Basics demystifies this highly interdisciplinary subject. Along the way, the reader will find out:
* What is a sign?
* Which codes do we take for granted?
* What is a text?
* How can semiotics be used in textual analysis?
* Who were Saussure, Peirce, Barthes and Jakobson - and why are they important?
Features include a glossary of key terms and realistic suggestions for further reading. There is also a highly-developed and long-established online version of the book at: www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B.
Customer Reviews:
Good overview of a field that has alot of failings.......2005-09-22
This book does exactly what it set out to do; introduce the field of semiotics with an emphasis on media aplications. Unfortunatly semiotics is not a very reputable subject. An intresting quote that opitimizes what most of this book is about, "... since the code of linear perspective is built into the camera, photography and film, while appearing to involve simply a neutral coding of reality, serve to reinforce the borgeois individualism." I find the linking between artistic perspective and individualism specious (to say the least). If this isn't your opinion about these kinds of "enlightening" links then this book will be a fantastic read. For those that agree with the incredibility of most high-flying intellectual bigotry, this book is still good as an introduction to semiotics (the study of signs and sign systems), with an (for me) unfortunate bent towards idealism. Either way this is a good introduction to the literature with some good material in its own right.
If you really want an overview of the subject at hand..........2005-02-04
then this is perhaps the best book to pick up, as an intro... But ask yourself, honestly- why are you doing this to your mind? Writers who write as badly as the ones dealt with in this tome do so for one reason: intimidation. You're supposed to think, "wow this is hard to read. It must mean the writer has a grasp of things I don't. His arbitrarily constructed and half-assed idiolect make me feel befuddled... Ooh... He smart. Me dumb."
This is not the case.
'Twas the not the case with Schopenhauer, or Rousseau, or Plato, or Nietzsche, or Descartes, or any thinker/writer of substance. Ok, maybe Wittgenstein is hard at times, but his was an original and alien mind... One that struggled, always struggled... Sadly- the 20th C. was a benighted time for original thought. It had wordplay in abundance... but not much thought... one big candy store of thought. Neither caviar nor kale. No beef, no collard greens...
Semioticians and post-structuralists and post-mods, whatever: Their all-too-bombastic obscurantism is a sign of their bad faith. These thinkers are dead ends, their basic presuppositions are highly questionable (if not laughable) and their "discipline," if one may boldly employ the word in as ironical a way as possible- is a joke. The academic legacy of semiotics is a boil on the face of literature. "How many angels can dance oer' the head of a pin," but for post-modernity.
So, why are you taking these prating fools seriously? Call them on their bluff... and abandon their books to the fate of not being read.
Still, as they go, this is a Good Book, a clear book, albeit on a senseless, worthless and ultimately useless subject. Do you really think in 20 years the corpus of these frauds will have any bearing on the world? Does it now?
Great introduction and more.......2002-11-08
This book has been a great introduction to semiotics. However, it has been more, for when trying to understand what appeared to be unrelated topics I have returned to this book and found new insights which reach into philosophy and ontology.
First Among Many.......2002-10-03
Daniel Chandler decided to write this book because at the time there were no books providing an introduction to the complex subject of semiotics. There are now a number of titles on the market, but Chandler's is by far the best. At once accessible, Semiotics: The Basics, takes the reader through all the stages in the evolution of an understanding of semiotics and contextualises with clear examples. I used this book while writing my final undergraduate dissertation and had to read many of the other books on semiotics, but this is the book that I kept coming back to when I needed refreshing both in the basics and the more sophisticated concepts of semiotics. If you are an undergraduate just starting a course in semiotics then buy this book. And if you are about to teach a course in semiotics then read this book and recommend it to your students.
Offering Basics without being simplistic........2002-08-29
'Semiotics: the Basics' is remarkable for its clarity but never simplistic. From Saussure to Barthes, from Peirce to Eco, from Freud to Lacan and Derrida, Daniel Chandler offers a compelling and deeply insightful tour through the labyrinths of structuralism, sign systems, mediation, deconstruction, and other themes. Chandler delivers an essential summary of the major ideas in semiotics theory, but with careful sensitivity to those who are new to these ideas. His explanations are rich with examples. Where appropriate, he relates classical semiotics thinking to the highly mediated, postmodern world of mass communication. Chandler's online 'Semiotics for Beginners' has become the most often referred electronic text on the subject. 'Semiotics: the Basics' will undoubtely become a standard introductory text in undergraduate courses covering any aspect of contemporary communication theory.
Book Description
This up-dated second edition provides a clear and concise introduction to the key concepts of semiotics in accessible and jargon-free language. With a revised introduction and glossary, extended index and suggestions for further reading, this new edition provides an increased number of examples including computer and mobile phone technology, television commercials and the web.
Demystifying what is a complex, highly interdisciplinary field, key questions covered include:
- What is a sign?
- Which codes do we take for granted?
- How can semiotics be used in textual analysis?
- What is a text?
A highly useful, must-have resource,
Semiotics: The Basics is the ideal introductory text for those studying this growing area.
Book Description
Customer Reviews:
Best By Far.......2003-10-29
This book is the best by far in terms of lucidity and approachability. He demystifies and descarifies many difficult areas of theory. His historical approach (he begins mid-Victorian and moves from there through New Criticism, Formalism and the like) really helps show how each idea evolved from, and is indebted to, the other schools of theory. A brilliant book, which I cannot recommend highly enough!
Highly recommended..........2002-02-22
I can't say enough good things about this book and its author, Bertens. We are using this as one of our textbooks in an advanced Contemporary Literary Theory class. The readings that we have to do by literary theorists (Derrida & ilk) are often confusing, but the Bertens book ties everything together in easy-to-understand language. I never approach the book as a "chore," rather, it is a joy. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a clear, concise, well-written introduction to modern literary theory. It includes such topics as Formalism, Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction, Post-Colonialism, and Feminist Theory, among others.
Book Description
Part of the successful i Basics /i series, this accessible guide provides the ideal first step in understanding literary theory. Hans Bertens: br * leads students through the major approaches to literature which are signalled by the term 'literary theory' br * places each critical movement in its historical (and often political) context br * illustrates theory in practice with examples from much-read texts br * suggests further reading for different critical approaches br * shows that theory can make sense and that it can radically change the way we read. br Covering the basics and much more, this is the ideal book for anyone interested in how we read and why that matters.
Customer Reviews:
Good Explanations but So-So Writing.......2007-01-21
Bertens did a good job in explaining and demonstrating with examples the main points of the various literary approaches and other related topics, like in the discussion of language as an arbitary system of signs, he showed how -- in theory -- the word "nerd" acquired its meaning. However, there are many typos and the writing is inconsistent. Moreover, wordiness leads to many confusions. I suggest that, before you go into a chapter, read the summary, which is more accessible, to get a feel of the topic.
Good introduction.......2005-07-21
Good introduction to literary theory. I am pleased with the depth and breadth of coverage. The "readability" of the book is fine as well; theory has the potential to be some REALLY dry stuff, but Bertens makes it palatable without watering it down any more than necessary. I gave it four stars only because I reserve five stars for items that really knock my socks off. "Basics" was good and well worth the rather low price.
Clear, concise, and insightful.......2005-06-24
This is absolutely the best introduction to modern literary theory, and I have read them all! He introduces the theories in an historical narrative, explaining how and why they arose. He discusses the major figures in theory, and includes a valuable guide to further reading. His explanations of the abstruse and arcane world of literary theory are models of clarity and conciseness. I teach an introductory class on literary theory, and this is the book I use, chosen after carefully reviewing all available options.
Not for Beginners.......2005-04-13
Hans Bertens' comprehensive analysis of the core literary theories is a good tool for those who are already familiar with the methods and issues involving poststructuralism, New Criticism, Marxism, etc. and would like more of an advanced philosophical analysis of the schools of criticism. But if you are new to the subject, I would suggest finding an easier read. Throughout the his analyses, Bertens' text is vague to a considerable degree and he has a habit of jumping all over the place. This may produce more difficulty for those who are new to this area of literature and who need a concrete, upfront foundation in the various theoretical methods. To make matters worse, the text was written with the European/British student in mind, so the language may be more difficult to grasp.
Book Description
The last half century has produced an increasing interest in semiotics, the study of signs. As an interdisciplinary field, moreover, semiotics has produced a vast literature from many different points of view. As the discourse has expanded, clear definitions and goals become more elusive. Semioticians still lack a unified theory of the purposes of semiotics as a discipline as well as a comprehensive rationale for the4 linking of semiosis at the levels of culture, society, and nature. As Deely suggests in his preface, the image of the modern semiotic universe is the same as that of astronomy in 1611 as suggested by John Donne: "Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone; / All just supply, and all Relation."
This short, cogent, philosophically oriented book outlines and analyzes the basic concepts of semiotics in a coherent, overall framework.
Customer Reviews:
Too Abstract.......2003-04-08
I hoped this book would give me an understanding of semiotics from the point of view of classical and scholastic metaphysics. Certainly John Deely has the learning to do this. But I found this book largely unreadable. Long, long sentences. Clause piled upon clause. No examples. No contact with the world of experience. If he were my student, I would force him to write out, in one page, using short sentences, just what he wanted to say. But alas, he has passed that stage. I haven't found the book I sought, but this is not that book.
Too Abstract.......2003-04-08
I hoped this book would give me an understanding of semiotics from the point of view of classical and scholastic metaphysics. Certainly John Deely has the learning to do this. But I found this book largely unreadable. Long, long sentences. Clause piled upon clause. No examples. No contact with the world of experience. If he were my student, I would force him to write out, in one page, using short sentences, just what he wanted to say. But alas, he has passed that stage. I haven't found the book I sought, but this is not that book.
Misleading Title--A Very "Advanced" Book.......2002-10-15
I'll confess my bias here. I like not just facts or data, but key concepts or ideas--and this book has them, in spades. BUT I also like concrete material--specific examples, actual instances. Such illustrations of ideas, help me (1) comprehend the concepts, (2) see the crucial importance or "so-what" the difference the concepts make to some exigency, (3) to see how to apply or use the concepts, and (4) to read with more lively interest. And so, here's to the happy blending of the idea and the instance. ("Poetry is abstraction blooded.")
Unfortunately, many academic treatises float in the abstract stratosphere without ever descending to an earth-like instance.
This book is, alas, no exception. I clambered through the aerial crags of concept after concept (and no sense WHY this matters), and found only ONE specific example.
That of--a "thermometer." That's right--and I'm not even sure to what point....
Fortunately I discovered Semiotics for Beginners, by Daniel Chandler. "You could, too."
Excellent Philosophical Introduction to Semiotics.......2001-05-03
Having waded through piles of literature on semiotics, I found that Deely's text was precisely what I had been looking for. Texts in semiotics seem to divide into two sorts. On the one hand, there are theoretical texts that introduce a maze of sign distinctions and accounts of semiosis. On the other hand, there are texts in applied semiotics that uncover the structures of various sign systems. Both sorts of texts are agreed that the semiotic approach represents a major shift from the tradition of representational thought, but are murky on the precise nature of this shift. It is this that makes Deely's book unique. Deely carefully develops his introduction to semiotics with respect to the philosophical tradition, showing how it offers a new alternative to the traditional positions of realism and idealism, that is lucidly argued and which draws out many of the not immediately noticeable consequences of the semiotic approach. While it is true that Deely's text sometimes suffers obscure usages of language (no doubt resulting from the influence of scholastic and Rennaissance theories of signs on his thought), this occasional obscurity is more than offset by his ability to draw out the implications of semiotics and show its relevance to various epistemological and ontological debates that have informed philosophy.
Average customer rating:
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Empires of the Mind: I. A. Richards and Basic English in China, 1929-1979
Rodney Koeneke
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0804748225
Release Date: 2003-11-25 |
Book Description
Empires of the Mind tells the story of I. A. Richards, Britain’s foremost literary critic in the 1920s, and his effort to promote an 850-word version of “global” English in China. Examining the cultural milieu of Cambridge between the World Wars, where Richards’s internationalist vision first arose, this book traces the heretofore-unexplored connections between Richards's literary theories and his political ideals. Richards’s time in China covers a volatile period in Chinese history: the Japanese occupation, the Communist revolution, and the beginnings of the Cold War all feature prominently in the history of Basic English over a fifty-year period.
Koeneke considers Richards’s project in the light of current theories about imperialism: Did Basic English anticipate today’s multicultural aspirations for global exchange? Or did it advance new “empires of the mind” whose spoils are language and information? Ultimately, the history of Richards’s time in China offers a crucial window onto the postcolonial complexities of our own.
Book Description
This text is designed to provide a basic introduction to semiotics and communication theory, with plenty of examples from, and applications to, popular culture. It aims to make accessible the technical and often abstruse subject matter of sign theory in practical ways, with illustrations in such areas as myth. storytelling, television, advertising, clothing, and architecture. Without overwhelming, this introduction allows students and interested general readers to get a comprehensive look at what semiotics and communication theory are all about. Messages, Signs, and Meanings can be used directly in introductory courses in semiotics, communications, media, or culture studies. Additionally, it can be used in courses dealing with cognate areas of investigation (psychology, mythology, education, literary studies, anthropology, linguistics) as a complementary or supplementary text. The text builds upon what readers already known intuitively about signs and then leads them to think critically about the world in which they live--a world saturated with images of all kinds that a basic knowledge of semiotics can help filter and deconstruct. The text also provides opportunities for readers to do "hands-on" semiotics through the exercises and questions for discussion that accompany each chapter. Biographical sketches of the major figures in the field are also included, as is a convenient glossary of technical terms. The overall plan of the book is to illustrate how message-making and meaning-making can be studied from the specific vantage point of the discipline of semiotics. This third edition also includes updated discussions of information technology throughout, focusing especially on howmeanings are now negotiated through such channels as websites. chat rooms, and instant messages.
Product Description
Carson's newest volume in his set brings U.S. history abreast with recent developments in government and culture. Among the topics he examines are materialism and statism, the welfare state, conservatism and liberalism, the Reagan and Bush administrations and their subplots, as well as the collapse of Communism, Americans at work and play, and the trend of self-employment.
Download Description
The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have inspired some of the greatest works of literature--from Cervantes's Don Quixote to Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Although many versions exist, Malory's stands as the classic rendition. Malory wrote the book while in Newgate Prison during the last three years of his life; it was published some fourteen years later, in 1485, by William Caxton. The tales, steeped in the magic of Merlin, the powerful cords of the chivalric code, and the age-old dramas of love and death, resound across the centuries.
Customer Reviews:
Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
I have to say it took me quite a few sausage roll lunch hours to get through this one as a kid. There is no doubt it is very interesting and important for the whole Arthur thing.
Those interested should definitely check it out from that point of view, even if only having a browse, it is well worth the time to see the origins of a lot of this.
A classic.......2007-08-24
What a delight. I read this book as a child [over 50 years ago] and it was a wonderful trip back in time for me to read it again. I had forgotten how well produced and written it was. This Malory version captures the spirit of the era.
Well worth purchasing.
You need it if you are going to read Vol II.......2007-07-08
I purchased this book because my husband owns vol II and wanted to read vol I first. If you love epics, masonry, legends, and the like this is the book for you.
Keith Baines's Modern Version.......2007-06-29
Aamazon has lumped together reviews of most available versions and editions of Malory's classic, and it isn't always possible to tell just which one a reviewer is talking about. This review applies solely to the Signet Classic modern-English version by Keith Baines.
Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur" was published in 1485. That was at the very end of the Middle English period. What that means is that the ERnglish that Malory spoke was in many ways closer to Chaucer's than to our own. You can read the original, but you'll need an extensive glossary and a good deal of practice.
Nearly fifty years ago Keith Baines took the somewhat daring step of presenting Malory's proto-novel in Modern English. Baines called his work a "rendition" rather than a "translation" because he has cut out a fair amount of repetition and done a good deal of paraphrasing as well. Nevertheless, the resulting edition faithfully sets out all of the substance and most of the detail of the original in straightforward Modern English. There are no archaic "thees" and "thous," for example, yet, fortunately, Baines makes no attempt to "modernize" the level of diction. His prose therefore sounds appropriately sober without being stilted.
I read the Baines version in high school when there was no way I could have handled Malory's original Middle English. I loved it. Scholars are appropriately annoyed that Baines may have condensed a little too much, but if you're curious enough to delve deeper there's always Janet Cowan's Penguin Classic edition, which just modernizes the spelling, and the Norton edition which meticulously reprints the original and includes a number of academic essays to boot.
By the way, Malory's 1485 narrative of the Arthurian legend is quite a bit different in almost every way from T.H. White's deservedly popular and very humorous "Once and Future King." For one thing, Malory wasn't kidding around. His enduring classic of world literature is serious though filled with wonders. If you're mainly interested in the story, the Baines "rendition" is the best version of "Le Morte D'Arthur" available. (But take the fascinating introduction by poet Robert Graves, author of "Goodbye to All That" and "The White Goddess," with several grains of salt.)
Just the text, ma'am.......2007-01-08
This Modern Library edition runs true to form, lacking much in the way of supplemental material or notes but providing a good basic presentation of the text on quality paper in a good binding. An edition to keep on the shelf for occasional reading rather than a student's book. If there's a really good scholarly edition of the "Morte" out there I don't know about it - anyone?
Average customer rating:
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C. K. Ogden and Linguistics
Terence Gordon
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Semiotics
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ASIN: 0415103533 |
Book Description
The "whole linguistic problem" which Ogden addressed is a vast range of linguistic features and their useand the inadequacies in existing analyses of language. It was the study of these and related questions which give his work an enduring quality of particular relevance to late twentieth century linguistics.
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Elements of English, 2nd Edition: A Glossary of Basic Terms for Literature, Composition, and Grammar
Stan Malless
Manufacturer: Madison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0819168033 |
Book Description
Dictionary of basic terms for literature, composition and grammar.
Customer Reviews:
It's all here.......2001-07-01
This book covers all the basic elements of the English Language and of Literature that you should have learned in a good High School. Sad to say most college graduates still don't know these fundamentals (I know, I work at a University).
Want to master the fundamentals of the English language and more deeply appreciate the rich bounty of its literature without wadding through a book thick enough to stop a bullet? Then buy this book!
And if you want to really master grammar, in manageable doses, then check out English 3200 and 2600 by Blumenthal. You wont be disappointed. I wasn't. Now if I could only find a way to learn how to spell without using spell check all the time...=7
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