28378 - Methodologies of Analysis (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will have acquired an advanced methodological competency to carry out a semiotic analysis on various types of texts: stories, journal articles, campaign advertisements, photographs, websites, consumer goods.

Course contents

This course makes the students  familiar with the basic concepts of the applied Semiotics. At the beginning of the course the students will be tested to determine what level their knowledge of basic textual semiotics is, which the students should already be familiar with. Throughout the lessons, we will start from the notion of “text” and then we will introduce some advanced instruments for the analysis of written texts (tales, journal articles): and for visual and oral-visual texts, with exercises on paintings, photographs, clips from films and documentaries, print advertising, commercials, consumer goods, urban spaces. 

Readings/Bibliography

It is assumed that all students are familiar with the basic concepts that are present in the book: Maria Pia Pozzato, Capire la semiotica (Carocci, 2013).

Everyone must study the manual: Maria Pia Pozzato, Semiotica del testo metodi autori esempi (Carocci 2001, or following editions), chapters 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,15,16,17,20,21,23 

Whereas these are the advised theoretical texts for each different kind of chosen text:

Literary text:

Jacques Geninasca, La parola letteraria (Bompiani), in particolare il saggio "Dal testo al discorso letterario e al suo soggetto" e "Lo sguardo estetico"

Denis Bertrand, Basi di semiotica letteraria (Meltemi 2001)

Daniela Panosetti, Semiotica del testo letterario (Carocci 2016)

Poetic text:

Jurij Lotman, La struttura del testo poetico (Mursia).

Daniele Barbieri, Il linguaggio della poesia (Bompiani) e Nel corso del testo (Bompiani), di quest'ultimo in particolare l'analisi dell'Infinito di Leopardi.

 Photographic text:

Jean-Marie Floch, Forme dell'impronta (Einaudi).

Maria Pia Pozzato, Foto di matrimonio e altri saggi (Bompiani 2012), in particular the essai on wedding photos 

Dario Mangano, Che cos'è la semiotica della fotografia, Carocci, 2018

Advertising:

Jean-Marie Floch, Semiotica Marketing e comunicazione e Identità visive (Angeli)

Gianfranco Marrone, Il discorso di marca. Modelli semiotici per il branding (Laterza 2007)

Paolo Peverini, Social Guerrilla. Semiotica della comunicazione non convenzionale (Luiss University Press 2014)

Audiovisual:

Daniela Panosetti, Maria Pia Pozzato Passione Vintage. Il gusto del passato nei consumi, nelle serie tv e nei film (Carocci 2013)

A cura di Isabella Pezzini Trailer, spot, clip, siti, banner. Le forme brevi della comunicazione audiovisiva (Meltemi 2002)

Paolo Peverini Videoclip. Strategie e figure di una forma breve (Meltemi 2004)

Tv series:

Maria Pia Pozzato, Giorgio Grignaffini (a cura) Mondi seriali. Percorsi semiotici nella fiction (Link, RTI, 2007), in particolare il saggio di Smart_serials, "Forme della serialita'. Una guida semiotica all'analisi della fiction"

Giorgio Grignaffini, I generi televisivi (Carocci)

Antonio Savorelli, Oltre la sitcom. Indagine sulle nuove forme comiche della televisione americana (Angeli)

Jason Mittel, Complex tv (Minimum fax, ed. it. 2017)

Journalistic Text:

Maria Pia Pozzato, Leader Oracoli Assassini (Carocci), primo capitolo sull'articolo sull'oracolo di Delfi, important for the analysis of the cognitive discourse

Patrizia Violi, Anna Maria Lorusso, Semiotica del testo giornalistico (Laterza)

 

Books advised for the in-depth study of applied Semiotics:

Narrativity :

Essays in Algirdas Greimas Del senso 2, (Bompiani 1984), in particular "Per una teoria delle modalità", "Attanti attori e figure" e "Un problema di semiotica narrativa: gli oggetti di valore"

For the relation between Propp, Lévi-Strauss and Greimas, see the first two chapters of  Maria Pia Pozzato Semiotica del testo (Carocci 2001)

P.Violi, AM. Lorusso, C. Paolucci (ed) Narratività. Problemi analisi prospettive (Bononia University Press 2012) per la teoria della narratività.

Aspectualization:

Francesco Marsciani, "Gli aspetti" in Lucia Corrain, ed, Il lessico della semiotica (Esculapio)

A. J. Greimas e J. Courtés (1979), Semiotica. Dizionario ragionato di una teoria del linguaggio,  Bruno Mondadori 2007.

Jean-Claude Coquet Le istanze enuncianti (Bruno Mondadori)

On comparison between different semiotic approaches:

Stefano Traini, Le due vie della semiotica (Bompiani 2006)

Sandra Cavicchioli (ed) Le sirene. Analisi semiotiche intorno a un racconto di Tomasi di Lampedusa (Clueb 1997

M.P. Pozzato, G. Ferraro, V. Pisanty, Variazioni semiotiche. Analisi interpretazioni e metodi a confronto (Carocci 2007)

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching methods

Some lessons will be thoretical, some practical on texts to analyze.

Students will be considered "attendees" if they have attended at least 2/3 of lessons.

The attendees can formed spontaneously work groups and the teacher will assign to them a text to analyze for the exam among short novel, advertising, photo, poem, commercial, videoclip, one  episodesof a tv series, an object.

Assessment methods

Multiple choice test:

All students, attendees and not attendees, will do a multiple choice test on the manual Semiotica del testo metodi autori esempi (see above which chapters must be studied). This part of the oral exam has been introduced in order to check individual preparation also for the components of the groups.

 

Oral exam for attendees:

After the test, attendees' groups will illustrate their analysis through a power point. Each component has to expose at least a part of the analysis.

Written and oral exam for non-attendees:

Some days before the exam, the non-attendees have to communicate to the teacher which kind of text they prefer to analyze during two hours in the classroom the day of the exam. It is possible to choose a poem, a novel, a commercial, an advertisement, a photo, a newspaper articol, an object, a videoclip. Non attendees have also an oral exam on theorical texts fitting to the chosen typology of text.

Teaching tools

During the course the professor will provide various handouts and specific bibliographies, depending on the type of texts being examined. For those who don't attend the lessons, some titles of essais useful for the analisys of a text (final exam) are indicated in the section "texts"

Links to further information

http://www.magistralesemiotica.dsc.unibo.it

Office hours

See the website of Maria Pia Pozzato