Signifier

Words serve a function. A structuralist would say that a word acts as a signifier and the definition that people associate with that word is the signified. A post-structuralist would argue that the words meaning depends on a person’s context and could change from moment to moment and person to person. The way we approach words lies somewhere in between. We all approach a word differently, but we seek to agree upon a definition to have a common understanding. Antisemitism is a great example of…

Roland Barthes’ Rhetoric of the image breaks down the ways in which individual signs in advertisements work. The first, linguistic message is literally what is written in the advert and is useful for bringing the advertisements overall meaning in context. The second, the uncoded iconic message is the tautological qualities of everything within the frame; the photograph itself and the objects it contains. The third, is the coded iconic message, essentially the connotative meanings of the ad that…

Introduction and Basic Information of Article Danish researchers Jensen and Sørensen, who work and write for Nordicom, are concerned about how social networks shifted its role from social interaction and bonding with others to work as a social negotiation, which leads to reshape and redefine of the existed relationship and friendship (Jensen & Sørensen, 2013, p. 60). Their study suggested that the outcomes were similar to research from Danah Boyd`s “social converges” and “networked publics”…

This essay will examine of how themes and literary devices on transformation permeate Old English Poetry in relation riddles and elegies. Riddles and the elegy The Seafarer from the Exeter Book will be referenced. The themes and literary devices of riddles that focus on transformation that will be discussed are de-conceptualisation, metaphors and imagery. Within elegies the themes that focus on transformation in relation to The Seafarer that will be discussed are the transformation of the…

Along with Christian beliefs, Beowulf and The Grapes of Wrath seem to incorporate Christ figures or representations of God. First, in Beowulf, Robert Stevick has a different viewpoint with Beowulf following along with Christianity. In his article, “Christian Elements and the Genesis of ‘Beowulf,’” Stevick said “Beowulf does have some Christian virtues and fights against monsters that could double as Christian symbols of evil, but he hardly seems to be a Christ-figure, a pre-Christian thane of…

Portrait painting thrived in the Netherlands with the increase in production driven by interest in the idea of personhood and the definition of the individual self. Portraits help document the development of a personal identity as it connects factors like marital status, class, and profession. A common portrait genre produced during the seventeenth century portrays their subjects with an impassive demeanor with little vigor. At first, the paintings may be evaluated as lacking “personality” or…

The face of the doll stares directly outwards her face a blank expression. Giving the disturbing indication of non endorsed intercourse. Sherman has made the doll’s face the signifier of the piece; the yellow hair, red lipstick, and the smoothness of the doll in contrast to the rest of the image makes the face the focal point. The dolls “eyes reminiscent of the pleas for help from the ‘demoiselle in distress’5, the violence against…

Looking particularly at how the gender ideology around femininity is currently being played out in women’s weightlifting raises many ethical questions and speaks loudly to the difficult “bodywork” issues that women are facing. First, it is important to understand that gender is culturally constructed through different forms of emphasized femininity and masculinity in culture. Sex is the actual biological make up of men and women. What is masculine is not feminine, and what is feminine is not…

Debates over the abolition of sati marked a contested ground in both India and England between 1780 and 1833. Taken by colonial officials to mean the self-immolation of a Hindu woman on her husband's funeral pyre, the or conceal gay identity.Gender, Class and the Sacred in the Dress of Women Religious" examines the way in which nuns' dress is a visible manifestation of conflicts related to role, self, and the conscription of the body by the church. Unfortunately, she provides more rhetoric than…

“The role of education is to teach students about the unique and exceptional historical events that made the United States of America the greatest nation humanity has ever seen.” This statement, although many would like to believe in it, is a lie. For centuries Americans have declared the United States “the greatest nation in the world,” “leader of the free world,” a place of “life, liberty, and happiness,” a place where anyone could achieve the “American dream.” This mindset, is the belief of…