Our class discussion made the
readings more interesting for me. After reading Saussure and Barthes texts, I
think I was unknowingly confused about certain key concepts. When we discussed
the quotes on the PowerPoint slides, I kept thinking “Oh ok, I understand now”
and I left class with a much better understanding of what Saussure and Barthes was
trying to convey.
The examples in class really helped
me as well. One, in particular, that really stuck with me was the Exxon/Esso
picture, where we discussed the Tiger head picture and its meaning. Truthfully,
when I looked at the picture, I completely bypassed the tiger, instead focusing
more on the Esso sign which indicated a gas station. Then after a bit, I
noticed the tiger and simply assumed that it was a symbol indicating food
service of some kind, just like some of my peers did. I wouldn’t have guessed the truth behind the
symbol and this fact has me looking at signs in a different way now. I find myself trying to think of the
underlying meaning in the different symbols, similar to what we were doing with
the “A Short Story” slides. Instead of just interpreting the obvious, we looked
at the way it was written and tried to make connections to better understand
the meaning and as we progressed through the slides, we all had different
interpretations of it. It was really interesting and helped me to understand
Saussure concepts of thoughts, signs and language. I really enjoyed our class discussion
and I looked forward to more to come.
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