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Albany, NY – In today's Academic Minute, Dr. Michael Mills of the University of Northern Colorado explains the study of semiotics in today's multicultural environment.
Michael Mills is a professor of literature, coordinator of Core and Integrative Learning, and co-director of the Life of the Mind program at the University of Northern Colorado. Since 2004, Mills has served as Associate Editor of the journal English Education.
Dr. Michael Mills - Semiotics
In simplest terms, semiotics is the study of signs. A sign is anything that has meaning: the mailman, an elephant, the color maroon, a coarse sweater, and the smell of lemons. The street sign Pedestrian Walking may be understandable to you, but someone not schooled in American traffic signs may see something different.
Signs can be interpreted as what they are (denotatively) and what they suggest (connotatively); thus an artist's drawing of a leafing tree may also imply spring or a time of rebirth. How you think about trees may be affected by your childhood and other experiences, hometown or even mood or attitude. Semiotics suggests that our understanding of reality is constructed and interpreted by human beings, so there can be no independent, absolute meaning to a sign.
While traveling in Portugal, I attempted to interpret a strange stenciled outline on a wall of a masked cartoon rabbit holding a bomb. Was the artist creating a statement about the folly of terrorism or critiquing the military as foolish? I made meaning out of the sign, but did so through my worldview, belief systems, and experiences.
For most, swastikas will forever be linked to Hitler and the Third Reich with its death cults and horrors. But swastikas are an ancient sign: for Buddhists, a swastika may represent good fortune, while for Hindus perhaps the god Vishnu. The swastika has been a sign in most religious faiths, even with early Christians. But many generations from now, how certain signs are interpreted may very well change.
In the meantime, look about your world and consider how the signs around you suggest ideas about economic class, gender expectations, regional stereotypes, and political beliefs. And if you are ever in Portugal and happen to see a certain masked cartoon rabbit holding a bomb, maybe you can figure out what in the heck it is supposed to mean to you of course