Communication Semiotics

Instance: 2022/2023 - 1S

Cycles of Study/Courses

Last updated on 2022-10-17.

Fields changed: Objectives, Resultados de aprendizagem e competências, Métodos de ensino e atividades de aprendizagem, Fórmula de cálculo da classificação final, Bibliografia Obrigatória, Avaliação especial, Melhoria de classificação, Obtenção de frequência, Programa, Provas e trabalhos especiais

Teaching language

Objectives

The Semiotics and Communication course aims to provide students with the theoretical basis of the semiotic model of the communication process. Following recent trends in this field of studies, we will revisit some of the topics covered in the tradition of Rhetoric in what concerns discourse analysis. We will also open the field to the lessons that can be drawn from Visual Culture with regard to the production of meaning. This framework will allow an analytical approach to case studies that will be examined throughout the semester, with an emphasis on oratory and the image.

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of the semester, students will have acquired passive and active skills in terms of reading and producing meaning using words and images.

These skills translate into a greater analytical capacity when it becomes necessary to interpret any sign or complex communicative act.

Working method

Program

Introduction to Semiotics

      1.Ferdinand de Saussure: semiotics and linguistics. The binary model.

2. C.S. Peirce: triple structure of meaning. Icon, index, symbol

3. Roman Jakobson: the sender-message-receiver communication model.
4. Roland Barthes and Umberto Eco: intertextuality, mythologies, open work.

 
Semiotics and the Word: Rhetoric

1. Aristotle: Modalities of oratory speech. Ethos, pathos, logos.

2. The canons of rhetoric in Cicero and Quintilian. Invention, device, elocution, memory, action.

3. Rhetoric and semiotics: case studies.

Semiotics and Image: Visual Culture

1. Walter Benjamin: the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.

2. André Bazin: the photographic image. Indexicality.

3. Laura Mulvey: the male gaze and the cinematographic image.

4. Jasper Juul: ludology and narratology in video games.

Mandatory literature

Teaching methods and learning activities

Classroom lectures and discussion will be supplemented by sharing texts and other online resources. During the first module, in which the fundamental theories of semiotics are examined, classes will occur primarily through lecturing. Gradually, interaction will be encouraged, as we move on to the two other modules, where the intersections between with other areas of knowledge that favor the use of words and images, respectively, rhetoric and visual culture, will be in focus.

Evaluation Type

Assessment Components

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Eligibility for exams

In accordance with the Assessment Regulations of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (applicable to 1st cycle courses - Licenciatura): article 11 / nº 2 / 3 / 4

Calculation formula of final grade

Exam - 100% 

Examinations or Special Assignments

In accordance with the Assessment Regulations of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (applicable to 1st cycle courses - Licenciatura)

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

In accordance with the Assessment Regulations of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (applicable to 1st cycle courses - Licenciatura)

Classification improvement

In accordance with the Assessment Regulations of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (applicable to 1st cycle courses - Licenciatura)

Observations

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