ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
Choose a visual text for analysis.
Carry out a semiotic analysis of the work ensuring you establish as precisely as possible the signifying processes involved. You must analyse the text in terms of the following elements (not necessarily in the same order):
• the signs it employs (What are the key signs used in the text? Describe each, identifying signifiers and signifieds and the process by which you make these connections.)
• the dominant code/s used in the text
• the text’s use of metaphor and metonym (if applicable)
• the genre of text to which your selected example belongs.
In identifying the genre (or mix of genres) to which your visual text belongs, clarify and support your view by making comparisons with at least two other works from the same genre/s. Be sure to include reproductions of these secondary images with your assignment.
In your analysis, you should make informed use of the terminology specific to semiotic analysis and also employ standard art historical terms in your description of the work and its functioning (e.g., composition, line, perspective, colour, texture, gesture, etc). A table detailing key signs and S’r:S’d relationships must be included. (Information on this requirement will be provided in lectures and tutorials.)
ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES
Basically, your task with this assignment is to undertake a very detailed examination of as many aspects of the text as possible, attempting to identify the various signifying processes by which it acquires meaning (or a range of possible meanings) for you. It may be useful to present your analysis as a process, beginning with your examination of the dominant signs, then considering the ways in which their impact is reinforced, modified or changed by other signs, and also considering the questions of interpretation raised by the conjunction of particular elements in the text. In this way you can detail the process by which you gradually build a more comprehensive and complex reading of the text rather than launching into a ‘finished’ interpretation in your opening paragraph. If you find aspects of the text ambiguous or confusing, your ability to identify and explain how these ambiguities/confusions are generated by the text is the important thing, not necessarily your ability to resolve the point of confusion/ambiguity (although of course you should try for resolution!).
CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT:
1. Ability to describe and interpret: signs (specific and significant visual features) at the level of signifier and signified; metaphor; metonym; types of signs.
2. Ability to produce a table of key signs (S’rs and S’ds) at the level of denotation and connotation, summarizing the above analysis clearly and concisely.
3. Ability to identify the dominant code/s employed in the text, generic and other.
4. Ability to write a coherent account of how the various parts of the visual text function as a whole utilising semiotic terminology.
5. Effective use of written English (including spelling, punctuation, essay structure) and Referencing.
All criteria must be addressed in the assignment to obtain a pass grade.
ADMINISTRATION
1. You must include a good reproduction (photocopy, scan, photograph, video) of the text analysed. You may submit more than one view of the work but these must be mounted onto A4 sheets and securely stapled.
2. All submissions must be in A4 format and 1½ or double line spacing.
3. A QIBT cover sheet (available via download at ‘MyQibt’) must be stapled to the front of your assignment. Be sure to fill in ALL parts of the cover sheet.
4. Assignments to be handed in at the end of tutorials in Week 6. ALWAYS KEEP A PHOTOCOPY OF ALL ASSIGNMENTS SUBMITTED.
5. You are reminded that plagiarism is considered to be a very serious breach of academic ethics and is penalized accordingly.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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