Readings - John Storey (Week 3)

John Storey's book 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture,' in an interesting insight to the role of popular culture in society. 

Storey discusses the theoretical work of Ferdinand de Saussure whose ideas and theories were focused around structuralism; something Terry Eagleton (1983) refers to as being “quite indifferent to the cultural value of its object” and a method that is "analytical."

The text explores how Saussure's key ideas have been taken on and adapted by numerous other theorists in an attempt to discover a way of approaching texts. 

Saussure

Storey begins describing Saussure's ideas of the signifier and signified. He explains how a word, for example 'dog' is a signifier as it is something we all recognise, and this then causes us to form a mental image of a dog in our minds; the signified. This image however is different for everyone, and therefore difference is established and it is just a result of convention. He explains how Saussure voiced that this was merely a cultural agreement and that, “Meaning is not the result of an essential correspondence between signifiers and signifieds; it is rather the result of difference and relationship.” Another primary example of this includes the well known traffic light system. We have learnt that a green light signifies 'go' however if it was originally established that red was 'go,' this would not effect us in anyway and the system would still work just as well. The colours represent a marked difference and not a natural meaning. 

He explains that meaning is made through the process of combination and selection; a process known as the syntagmatic axis of language. This occurs in our daily lives and the language we speak as sentences can have completely different meanings in words are substituted for others. Storey clarifies that this further occurs with things we see, such as snow; snow to a normal human is seen as a simple snowy landscape, whereas to a geographer this seems a lot more. 

He explains that 'langue' is the system of a language, including the rules and conventions that form it. This differs to 'parole' which is the individual use of a language, for example the performance of it. It is the underlying rules of cultural texts and practices that interest structuralists through studying using a diachronic approach (which studies the historical development of language) or a synchronic approach (studying a given language at a particular moment in time) which is the most used out of the two. 

Storey explains that the task of structuralism is to make rules and conventions (the structure) which govern the production of meaning (acts of parole); it is structure that makes meaning possible.

Roland Barthes

Storey goes on to explain how, French theorist, Barthes, looked further in Saussure's idea of the signifier and signified. His own views represent the secondary level of signification; the mechanisms by which meanings are produced. He produced his own theory of denotation (the primary signification) and connotation (the secondary signification)

The Panoptic Machine

The Panoptic Machine

Storey describes the concept of the Panoptic Machine which reflects a prison shaped building; “At the centre of the building is a tower that allows an inspector to observe all the prisoners in the surrounding cells without the prisoners knowing whether or not they are in fact being observed.”
This shows a way of obtaining power over mind and the power of panopticon; the prisoners do not know if they are being watched or not, therefore they learn to behave as if they are constantly being watched. This shows how having power can change the way a person thinks and behaves.