Theories of meaning and culture ESIN 4008 (3 Credits) LM 7 am-8:50am PU 3122 Prof. Alfredo E. Rivas alfredokino@yahoo.com Course Description: University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus School of Communication First semester 2014-15 This course focuses on the study of semiotics as a model for reading the significance of processes and symbolic products. The sign starts as a basic unit of representation, and from there the different applications of the model are examined, with semiotics not only as a linguistic study system, but in its broader application: as a starting point to analyze symbolic production. The course tries the same to sustain a critical position that invites reflection and deconstruction of events and cultural products. Objectives : Familiarize the student with the basic terminology of the semiotic model. This includes the assessment of the proposal of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Peirce as systemic beginnings. Invite questions and epistemological criticisms about symbolic production, so that the student develops strategies of theoretical application, analysis and research. Confront the student with the main writings and positions that make up structuralism, post-structuralism, cultural studies and post modernity; so that in an introductory way the student is exposed to and questions models of cultural analysis. Evaluation and requirements : Partial exams (60%): There will be two partial exams during the semester. Partial work (30%): The student will be asked to turn in short assignments of reflection on indicated readings. Attendance (10%): Class attendance is required. If the student is missing for more three times in the semester without excuse or just cause, the final grade will be subtract ten percent (10%). Methodology : Conferences, discussion groups, film screenings, radio programs, television and other cultural products.
Different evaluations will be offered in response to particular needs that the student body could present. Your performance in daily class (attendance, punctuality, participation that pays intelligent discussion, and knowledge that demonstrates about the issues that affect Puerto Rico and the world) will also be taken into account when determining your final grade. Rights and obligations 1. The student must know and comply with the University Regulations and with the institutional policies of the University of Puerto Rico in relation to sexual harassment, use and abuse of drugs and alcohol, legal ethical use of information technologies, classroom discipline, honesty academic, among others. Any student who violates the provisions of the University regulations or those that violate institutional policies will be referred to the Office of Coordination of Student Affairs for the application of the corresponding disciplinary measures according to the university regulation. 2. Students who have special needs or who suffer from medical conditions or some type of physical, mental or emotional impairment that requires a reasonable accommodation, must notify the Office of Affairs of Persons with Prevent from the Campus, as soon as possible, in order to provide the reasonable accommodation necessary, in accordance with federal laws and applicable state 3. Students receiving Vocational Rehabilitation services must communicate with the professor at the beginning of the semester to plan the accommodation reasonable and necessary assistance equipment in accordance with the recommendations of the Office of Affairs for Persons with Disabilities (OAPI) of the Deanery of Students. March 12-14 Introduction Basic proposal of the semiotic model Language, sign and representation Sebeok, Thomas, The study of signs in Signs: an introduction to semiotics. March 19-21 Language sign and representation (reprise) Saussure, Ferdinand, General Linguistics Course (selection), Madrid: Alianza Universidad Textos. Eco, Umberto, The sign. Eco, Umberto, The semiotic field and The thresholds of semiotics in The structure absent. April 2-4 Application of the semiotic model to the study of symbolic and cultural production. The
advertising as a poetic consumption. Barthes Roland, Mythologies (selection of the first part) and The myth, today (second part) in Mythologies. Barthes, Roland, Semiology and advertising in The Semiological Adventure. April 9-11 Ideology as political prose Voloshinov V., The study of ideologies and the philosophy of language in The sign ideological and the philosophy of language Umberto Eco, Semiotics and architecture in The absent structure. April 23 Umberto Eco, The cinematographic code in The absent structure. April 25 Midterm exam April 30- May 2 Culture, ideology and change Althusser, Louis, ideology and ideological apparatuses of the State in Lenin and philosophy. May 7-9 Foucault: genealogy of the look Foucault, Michel, Governance May 14-16 Bauman, Zygmunt, Liquid modernity (selection). May 21-23 Postmodernity Lyotard, Jean-Francois, The Postmodern Condition (selection). May 28-30 Jameson, Fredric, Postmodernism or the cultural logic of advanced capitalism. June 4-6 Baudrillard, Jean, The ecstasy of communication in The Other by itself., The system of objects (selection). June 11-13 Zizek, Slavoj, Multiculturalism or the cultural logic of multinational capitalism. June 18 Final exam
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