Roland Barthes: Semiotic, The Collapse Of Meaning Authority

At the first time, semiotic was introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure through dichotomy of atomistic sign system: signified, signifier/ signifie and significant. This concept saw that meaning will be appeared if there is associative relation between what signed (signifier) and what to be signed (signified). Sign is unity from a signifier and idea or signified. A signifier will be meaningless without signified, and cause of that it’s not called by sign. And on the contrary, a signified cannot be extended without signifier. Signifier and signified couldn’t be separated, both of them is sign itself, they thus are a linguistic factor. “Signifier and signified are unity like two sides of a paper sheet” said de Saussure.
Roland Barthes is one of de Saussure followers who has opinion that a sign system reflected assumptions of certain society in certain time. Semiotic or semiology basically wants to study how humanity signifies things. In this case, to signify cannot be mixed with to communicate. Signify means those object want to communicate and also constitute structural system of sign.
The important thing which Barthes penetrated in his sign study is about the role of reader. Even connotation is original attribute of sign, also need reader activity to be functioned. Barthes explain clearly what he often called by second meaning system that built on other meaning system before. This second system is connotative. And semiotic approach is located in this second stage or in signified stage, then the message will be whole understood.
Roland Barthes made a systematic model to analyze the meaning of signs. His attentions more focus on two order signification concept. The first signification relation between signifier and signified in a sign toward external reality. He called it by denotation, that’s the real meaning of sign. Connotation is Barthes’ term to call the second signification. This describe the happen interaction when sign meet reader’s emotion and his culture values. Connotation has subjective meaning, at least inter-subjective meaning.
In this case, denotation is associated by closedness of meaning. As a reaction to against oppressive of literal denotation, Barthes try to refuse and eliminate it. For him the only exist is connotation. While denotation is the first and the real meaning of text that is untouched by human mind and its area is only in metaphysic world (maybe like idea in Plato term). And what is spread in human understanding is just connotation.
A few comments:
I saw his though is like other poststructuralist or postmodernist, like Derrida and Michel Foucault, then his theory destiny will be not far away from his other same philosophy genre. His though build anti-establishment. A text will be loosed his meaning in reality, because no one has a right to justify the real meaning of the text, even its author. Consequently, there are no differences between a beauty literature works and the bad one. All of it are fused in a universal text, that’s mythology. This concept is really unfinished solving.

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