QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS

1. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS CRITICAL TEXTUAL ANALYSIS, PART 2—MYTHIC ANALYSIS, SEMIOTICS & STRUCTURALISM

2. I.  Mythic/archetypal analysis • A. Myth involves a shared narrative or story • 1.  Operates at an unconscious level • 2.  Themes of myths are probably universal • 3.  Involves ultimate truths about life and death, fate and nature, God & humans • B.  Film in particular is receptive to myth • 1. Means of modern mythmaking • 2.  Film "speaks the same language" (picture/image) • 3.  Both are associated with dreams (S. Langer)

3. Mythic/Archetypal Analysis, con’t. • C. Myths are symbolic representations highly valued by societies  • 1. Have common characteristics • 2. Powerful appeal, esp. to the unconscious • 3. Often have universal meanings, understood within a cultural context • D. Films use both universal & cultural archetypes, & universal & cultural myths • E. Types include character archetypes, story archetypes, and symbols

4. II. Semiotic Analysis • A. The study of the social production of meaning from signs • 1. The science of signs which investigates “the nature of signs" & their social impact, so as to create laws (Griffin 98) • 2. Derived from linguistics (C. Pierce, F. Saussure, R. Barthes) • B. The study of signs (both verbal & non-verbal) & how they mean in a culture • 1. Central focus of semiotics--"the relationship between a sign and its meaning; and the way signs are combined into codes" (Fiske & Hartley 34)

5. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • 2. Looks at how signs function, "how meaning is generated & conveyed" (Berger 17) within "socially shared discourse" (Trenholm, 47) • 3. Looks at how the representation of signs & story structures establish meaning for particular groups, via discourse & specific texts • 4. Textual analysis articulates how this struggle between discourses is engaged. • a. Texts are how discursive knowledge is circulated, established, or suppressed

6. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • b. A text is a signifying structure composed of signs & codes • 1) A message that has a physical existence beyond the sender & receiver, composed of representational codes • 2) Also a network of codes working at a number of levels, capable of producing a variety of meanings

7. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • 4. Codes--A code is a system of signs, governed by rules agreed upon (explicitly & implicitly) by a culture • a. Presentational codes use the body as a transmitter & indicate a subject's internal or social state • b. Representational codes are free standing signs isolated from the sender--abstract, generalizable, iconic or symbolic • c. Codes can be digital or analogic (particle/wave idea)

8. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • d. There are behavioral codes (e.g. law, rules of football, etc.) & signifying codes • e. Signifying codes have these characteristics: • 1) convey meaning which is shared, conventional, & learned; and • 2) transmittable through appropriate media of communication • f. Language depends on verbal codes (primarily representational & digital) • g. Non-verbal codes may be digital or analogic, presentational or representational (more ambiguous)

9. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • 5. A sign is something which designates something other than itself. • a. Signs are arbitrary & learned through culture • b. Do not stand alone, but are part of a system of classification (or codes) • c. Have 3 characteristics: • 1) physical form • 2) reference to something other than itself • 3) recognizable as a sign • d. have 2 elements—signified & signifier

10. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • 6. Types of signs (Pierce): • a. Icon--signifies through a marked physical or perceptual resemblance between signifier and signified • b. Index--signifies through a connection to its object • 1) usually causal (but can also be existential); e.g. smoke/fire, spots/measles, footprint/person, snarl/anger • 2) Tend to operate metonymically (e.g. a cowboy hat for the whole cowboy)

11. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • c. Symbols--signifies through conventions or rules; arbitrary, conventional signs which stand for something other than themselves • 1) Have to learn the meanings of symbols • 2) All words are symbolic; other images may be a mixture of types • 3) Tend to be metaphoric or abstract (e.g. a gold coin symbolizes wealth) • 4) Symbols can be archetypal or stereotypical, as well as cultural or individual

12. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • 7. Orders of signification (Barthes): • a. Denotation, simple • 1) simple or literal relationship of a sign to its referent • 2) assumed to be "objective" & "value-free” • b. Connotative, 2nd order--meaning extended to the realm of values, associative, expressive, attitudinal, evaluative meaning • c. Ideological, 3rd order--the connotations & myths of a culture are manifest signs of its ideology (Fiske & Hartley)

13. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • 8. Signs can also be metaphoric or metonymic • a. Metaphors—signs that stand for something else than original; creates images & myths • b. Metonymy--when part of a sign stands for the whole, e.g. a city street for the city, 2 or 3 pickets for an union trade strike, a soldier for Army etc. • 9. Can analyze signs as part of a paradigm, or a set of units which combine with others • a. Meaning is determined by how units (syntagms) interact with others (e.g. a sentence forms paragraphs)

14. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • b. Paradigmatic analysis focuses on an associative metaphoric code • 1) Examine vertical sets of units representing latent meaning • 2) Read synchronically or “down the chart” • 3) “Read against the grain," looking for patterns of opposition or themes, etc.

15. Semiotic Analysis, con’t. • c. Syntagmatic analysis looks at linear patterns (such as syntax or the grammatical structure) • 1) Examine horizontal, systematic sets of units linked to each other, representing manifest meaning • 2) Read diachronically or “across the chart” • 3) Often chronological (e.g. the structure of fairy tales & narratives) • 4) Formulaic & logical in sequence

16. III. Structuralism • A. Structuralism & post-structuralism are complex theoretical positions • 1. In general, structuralism dedicated to the systematic elaboration of rules • 2. Also looks at the constraints on such rules • 3. Looks at systems, relations,& forms (the "structures") that make meaning possible in any cultural activity or artifact • B. Not an interpretative approach to meaning--does not seek to reveal hidden or intrinsic meaning in a text • C. Instead texts reveal meanings through their "structures" or relationships within a system of signs

17. Structuralism, con’t. • D. One way of analyzing texts is to examine binary oppositions • 1. How meanings are generated out of two-term systems • 2. Originally developed from anthropological & literary analysis of myth (e.g. VladamirPropp'sMorphology of the Folktale & Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology) • 3. Binaries arise out of culture, out of the nature of language itself & the products of our signifying systems (e.g. images)

18. Structuralism, con’t. • 4. Binaries structure our perceptions of the natural & social world in an orderly & meaningful way • 5. Meaning is generated by opposition • a. Signs mean most in terms of what they are not; always imply their opposites • b. Most extreme, yet basic form of difference is binary--only two signs, e.g. LAND:SEA • 1) Mutually exclusive • 2) Yet together form a complete system--the earth's surface • 3) Similar binaries: US:THEM, GOOD:BAD, LIGHT:DARK, MEN:WOMEN, etc.

19. Structuralism, con’t. • c. Binary logic produces ambiguities • 1) Repressed but often emerge as a sub-text (e.g. between LAND & SEA is the BEACH--a territory not quite land or sea) • 2) Binary logic finds this "scandalous“ • 3) Often a site of taboo in a culture • a) Activities or states that don’t fit the binary system subjected to repression or ritual • b) This taboo territory is a liminal, or transitional, state--a state out of time, on the edge of experience • c) In many cultures this is a sacred time

20. Structuralism, con’t. • d. Transitional (liminal) states require a rite-of-passage from one state to another, e.g. passage between CHILD:ADULT (youth), or between SINGLE:MARRIED (engaged) • e. Ambiguities also resolved through a type of THESIS:ANTITHESIS:SYNTHESIS process • 1) Often occurs through myth (see Levi-Strauss) • 2) Ambiguous term mediates between the oppositional poles)

21. Structuralism, con’t. • f. Binary oppositions are structurally related • 1) Function to order meanings • 2) Lead to transformations of one underlying binary running through a story structure, e.g. MALE:FEMALE into terms like PUBLIC:PRIVATE, NATURE:CULTURE; etc. • 3) Each binary has an overlap representing the overlap the taboo, ambiguous category • 4) Although repressed, the ambiguous category can be transformed as well • 5) Each of the terms on one side is invested with the qualities of the others on that side

22. Structuralism, con’t. • g. Thus binaries are highly ideological • 1) Nothing natural about them • 2) The logic of binaries is hard to escape (e.g. GOOD:EVIL often gets linked to US:THEM) • 3) The ideological nature of binaries is further enhanced because positive & negative values attach themselves to opposed terms • 4) For example, in the current abortion debate, the terms move as follows: • GOOD is to EVIL as LIFE is to DEATH is to ABORTION ACTIVISTS vs. ABORTION DOCTORS • 5) This frames the debate in absolute moral terms

23. Structuralism, con’t. • E. Another approach is deconstruction of texts • 1. Deconstruction is a mode of literary analysis • a. Derived from Jacques Derrida • b. Argues philosophical assumptions underlying writing do not guarantee their meaning • c. On the contrary, the discourses systematically undermine the assumptions • 2. The method takes nothing for granted • 3. Challenges belief that language is merely referential--naming an already existing reality

24. Structuralism, con’t. • 4. Deconstruction dedicated to teasing out the repressed, marginalized & absent in the chosen discourse • 5. This is not the same as looking for a hidden meaning--the meaning is manifest, extrinsic, it just needs to be "deconstructed“ • 6. Deconstruction a method associated with post-structuralism

25. Structuralism, con’t. • 7. Post-structuralism combines structuralist ideas with psychoanalytic theory (esp. looking at the role of pleasure in producing & regulating meanings) • a. Also concerned with external structures (beyond the text), such as class, gender, & ethnicity, which make meaning possible • b. Original structuralism more concerned with internal textual structures • c. A shift in focus from text to reader (thus sometimes also linked to reader-response theory)