structuralism

this topic is actually one of the hardest topic for me to understand so far.but bit by bit i was able to hold of it.What structuralism means is how me collect and divide or group our thoughts or ideas. any possible way to form a structure.

Structuralism argues that there is no single true way of seeing or understanding the world - there are many different, equally valid ways of seeing or understanding the world

the key is that we are all shaped by our cultural background - therefore our way of seeing and understanding the world is culturally determined(took from the slides)

i took the following above from the slides my lecturer gave because it basically explains how the way i would want the readers to understand.anyway, structuralism came from 3 different angles which is Linguistics,Narratology,Anthropology.

one of the main point in understanding structuralism is by knowing what binary opposition is.which basically brings the meaning that everything has an opposite of it. such as magnets,the poles,male and female,good and evil, black and white and so on..

but there are parts that shows that everything isnt divided just like that.there is something in between

which really leads to me that nothing is divided actually,there is something inbetween that connects both parts.which also relates to post structuralism which brings the meaning that there isnt difference.
following are just pictures to sum up the whole topic.im sorry if i've mislead you,this is basically my understand of it.

intertextuality

what i understand from intertextuality is that something that has the same meaning from the orignial content but presented in a different way.such as movies these days,often taken from books which is a good thing as it somehow helps understand the message easier. Its a way to say that no text is independent  that all texts are amalgams or mixtures...

the amalgams or mixtures could be seen as a few ways such as a parody,remix,remakes,sequels,prequels that derives from the an existing original media or form.

a few examples such as.

apple and blackberry

apple and blackberry LEVEL-UP!

HARRY POTTER AND LORD OF THE RINGS BOOKS:

HARRY POTTER AND LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIES:

and as could be seen on youtube and movies nowadays,there's a lot of parody remakes which could also be linked to intertextuality

different forms of changes could be seen like from a movie later releasing the continuation to a game and so.

Lost the tv series

lost the game :)

but we could not conclude that the original form of a thing is the right one as the remakes or sequels or parodies are wrong,the follow could be interpretation of a person towards the initial subject. below are just random images i have that i think could belong in this topic

semiotics

what is semiotics?i always here the word semiotics from my history lecturer during foundation period,he's always saying."its very semiotic".never really knew what it meant until now.

semiotic basically means the study of signs and how they work to create a meaning it stands for.just basic signs,u see everywhere.

but to study signs or to know signs we need 2 important ingredient to make it workable i shall say,which is the signifier and the signified

signifier is the physical form of the sign in the 'sensorium' of the culture where else signified is the mental concept part of the shared language of the culture. we need both signifier and signified to process out the understanding of a sign.

example of  sign.

none of the image or matches what its written

the signs should really signify correctly to bring out a message and so that its not misinterpreted. for an example,ever wondered why a NO ENTRY sign is a dash instead of a cross which a cross or an X could really bring the meaning no or cannot or something negative.but why was it used as dash?

because its actually a negative symbol which carries out negative signs.if a X was used it could be meant as a plus sign or wrong direction.so usage of signifier is important.

but in the sense of signs.there are two types too,either iconic or arbitrary.iconic in a sense that something that looks similar or very close to the original thing and arbitrary is something less iconic or far from knowing what it is but has links to thing it signing of.

the image above could be said as sign that shows a condom and a gun where a gun could signify war or taking life where else the condom signifies making love.

EXAMPLES OF ICONIC AND ARBITRARY SYMBOLS:

and there u go.a lil bit about symbols as far as i understand. and have a look at the video too :)