Semiotics and Interpretation

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Robert Scholes

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"The book offers . . . a clutch of examples of semiotics usefully and intelligently applied, which Scholes's patient, cheerful tone and his resolutely concrete vocabulary manage to combine into a breezily informative American confection."—Terence Hawkes, Times Literary Supplement

"Timely. . . . Scholes argues a forceful case for the practical, transformative effects of semiotic method, its capacity to open up texts to a reading more productive and radical than anything entertained by the 'old' New Criticism. . . . This is a lively and combative book which moves adroitly between questions of method and striking interpretative sallies. It should go some way toward dispelling the prejudice lately engendered by misinformed attacks on 'structuralism' and 'literary theory.'"—Christopher Norris, Philosophy and Literature

"An adventurous approach to the writing of literary criticism. . . . This critique demonstrates once more that Scholes, thoroughly acquainted with European and American literatures and contemporary criticism, is one of the most authoritative scholars in the field of semiotics."—The Antioch Review

"Accessible yet challenging, this book will be the indispensable introductory text for semiotics—indeed for any theoretical course in the humanities and social sciences that deals with the theory of these disciplines."—Choice

"[Scholes] is among our best interpreters of literary theory. . . . He provides not only an argument for semiotics but an informed criticism of it as well."—Martin Green, The Literary Review

"Excellent. . . . Scholes' views are balanced and undogmatic. He relates one mode of thought to another rather than severing them from each other, linking Todorov to Barthes, 'irony' to 'code,' New Criticism to semiotics, and so on. This book plays an important role in the dissemination of literary theory."—James J. Sosnoski, James Joyce Quarterly

"[Scholes] applies the range of semiotic theory to a series of other texts—poems, stories, films, a scene from a play, bumper stickers, even a part of the human anatomy. . . . When we finish this text, we feel that we have learned the basic principles of semiotics and can apply them in our teaching and criticism; as a bonus, we gain many new insights into familiar texts."—Richard Pearce, Novel

ISBN: 9780300027983
Publication Date: September 10, 1982

162 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4