Representation &
Roland Barthes’ Semiotics
Structuralism (3)
Outline
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1. Representation
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2. Semiotics:
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Representation and Production of Meaning
Theories of Representation
De Saussure Re-Considered: Contribution & Limitations
Major principles in semiotic readings
Sign systems: fashion as an example
Semiotic reading (1): denotation and connation
Semiotic reading (2): first and second-order signification.
(literal language and meta-language)
Myth today defined
3. Examples: Images of Nature in some Landscape
Paintings and Ads
What is Representation?
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1.
2.
3.
Not Re-Presentation (原音重現，身歷其境, 歷史現
身)
“Representation means using language to say
something meaningful about, or to represent, the
world meaningfully, to people.” (15)
Using language (system of representation);
To produce meanings (another system of
representation) about (make connections among)
things, and
To communicate them to some people.
What are the two systems of
representation we use in representation
(meaning production)?
1. Signs
Codes (pp. 21-22)
 signifier (e.g. ‘love’ ‘I’)
2. Conceptual System (pp. 17-18; e.g. love 
‘romantic love,’ ‘puppy love,’ ’maternal love,’
etc.)
 frequently inseparable from the signified of
our languages;
What’s hidden in this stereogram 
Shapes formed
because of 1) twoeye differences
(wall-eyed; crosseyed);
2) the gestalt laws of
organization (e.g.
figure and ground)
Conceptual
System
What’s hidden in this stereogram 
ANSWER: BUNNY!
http://www.billybear4kids.com/stereogram/bunny.html
What’s this? What mental image (concept)
does it correspond to?
Different Perspectives =
Different Conceptual
Systems
the Context of a sign,
which determines its meaning
1. Conceptual System =
2. Sign system– image or
English letters
Two Systems at Work in Representation:
What kind of room is this?
A restaurant or a tea house?
 Signs: Red color, paper lantern, floor-to-ceiling
windows, sofas, pillows, wood desk, ‘bamboo room,’ etc.
What kind of room is this?
The Lava Room
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From Star Nightclub
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http://www.creamnyc.com/
Representation=
Meaning Production
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What makes the
difference?
Different
Languages
Are these meanings absolute or relational? Why?
Meaning – Essential or Relational?
I Think
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I’m Happy
God Loves Me
1. “I” – no essence?
2. Meanings
– one truer/better
than the other?
–produced by
ourselves or a system?
AM
II AM
I Teach/
Contribute to Society
I Fuck/
Produce Children
I Shop
生活的意義在
增進人類全體的生活﹔
生命的意義在
創造宇宙繼起的生命。
* Note
Note: Relativism
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Is there an essential definition of our selves?
e. g. 生為中國/劉家／輔大人，死為中國／劉家／輔
大魂（鬼﹚。
Self(-Definition) –not essential nor unchangeable;
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-- is relational (“I am A” implies “I am not B”). (i.e. binarist
thinking may be at work.)
-- is usu. determined by our value systems, if not given to
or imposed on us by our society.
-- can be contradictory, with so many conceptual systems
we live in.
Relational view of meaning is not relativism.
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Relativism: Everything is ok and nothing matters.
Theories of Representation
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Reflective approach –
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Intentional approach – Can we decide the meanings
of what we say? (p. 25)
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Some truth and functions to it (in communication, in
knowledge acquisition)
Representation as “Re-Presentation”
Representation as Self-Expression (得意而忘言；言止於心
意深處)
Constructivist approach –
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Things don’t mean; we construct meanings about them by
using different systems of representation.
Representation as Construction: We don’t speak language;
language speaks us. (Activity 4)
De Saussure: Contribution &
Limitations
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(pp. 32 – 35)
Contributions to the Constructionist Theory of
Representation
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Arbitrary relations between signifier and signified 
Meanings in language can never be fixed; they are open to
changes by ‘context’ (historical, social or personal).
Langue vs. parole  the social part of language;
Limitations:
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too exclusive focus on language;
Language is not a closed system.  semiotics –the study
of signs (languages in a broader sense)
Semiotics & Roland Barthes
Major principles
All the cultural products and activities
read as process or results of signification.
No meaning is inherent or natural.
2. There are more than one (arbitrary)
relations between signifiers and signified.
(iconic --resemblance, indexical --cause,
symbolic -- arbitrary).
3. There are more than one level of
meanings.  denotation and
connotation.
1.
What kinds of signs are they?
indexical
Iconic
Symbolic
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= Church
= crossroad
= airport
Sign System: Fashion as an
Example
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Fashion codes (signs + concepts)
(Textbook pp. 37-38)
Fabric: Silk= feminine, denim= masculine,
casual, cotton = comfortable, khaki= military,
formal.
skirt (+ silk)= feminine; jeans (+ cotton TShirt) =casual or masculine
Sign System: Rules of Selection
and Combination
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All social practices as sign-systems and thus are
open to cultural interpretation (or de-mystification).
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e.g. the meaning of a jacket defined by its contexts.
e.g. the “langue” of clothes (selection & combination)
System:
a. blouse, shirt, T-shirt ;
b. skirt, trousers
sentence:
1. blouse + skirt + high heeled shoes X snickers
2. blouse + jeans + snickers X not for concert
Fashion and Myth: from denotation to connotation;
description to prescription
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“. . . Mist gold, pure gold, and black gold are
all flashing in full glamour since most
collections are heavily weighted toward
evening cloths with an ostentatious dressing
chic.
If gold is too much for you, don’t worry, for here
comes the backup that makes you in style as
well, the color of camel! As usual, camel has
always been playing its role of warming up the
winter, which has been so elegantly carried
out by the blazing gold as it is this year.
“ (Sophie Ko)
Fashion: from language to myth
“Leather, of course, is something that can’t
be left out in each winter.”
“Fur, for sure, is a must, especially for collars, ”
“As for trousers, they really do need to be slimfitting and skinny-legged to be chic this
season! ” (Sophie Ko)
  myth: 紫醉金迷、世紀末的華麗
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Semiotic reading (1): Denotation and
Connotation
e.g. Panzani pasta
1. Denotation: “the real objects in the scene”
The signifiers: “these same objects
photographed.”
2. Connotation: “half-opened bag”  spilling
out onto the table  freshness, the
domestic
3. Italianness (red green white)
4. ‘a total culinary service”
5. Arrangement like “still life” painting
Semiotic reading (2): Different levels of
signification: primary signification &
secondary signification
a signifier + signified =
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sign (full)--denotation
primary signification:
Secondary
signification
Sign (empty)/
Form
+ content
= sign
--connotation
Semiotic reading (2): Different levels of
signification: primary signification &
secondary signification
Signifier + signified =
([home])
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sign (full)--denotation
primary signification:
Secondary
signification
Barthes’ examples:
rose, black pebble.
Sign (empty)/
Form
+ content
= sign
--connotation:
Homepage, country cottage, etc.
Myth
colonialism
militariness
Signifier + signified =
Young negro, in uniform, saluting,
With eyes uplifted, fixed
on the tricolor
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sign (full)—denotation
([Black solider saluting
a French flag])
Patriotism/submission
primary signification:
Secondary
signification
Sign (empty)/
Form
+ content
= sign
--connotation: France as a
Great empire, loved by all her “sons.”
“Myth”: distortion, naturalizing
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The form(on the secondary level) does not
suppress the original meaning, it only
impoverishes it, it puts it at a distance...
 myth hides nothing: its function is to distort, not
to make disappear
 Target: Myth has an imperative, buttonholing
character: ...it is I whom it has come to seek. ...
 For this interpellant speech is at the same time
a frozen speech: at the moment of reaching me,
it suspends itself, turns away and assumes
the look of a generality; it stiffens, it makes
itself looks natural and innocent