Signs, visual, olfactory, tactile or linguistic, are all around us. How do we grasp the sense of signs? And to deepen our understanding, how can we think of the meaning and the life of signs with help from exponents of the subject?
Words, that is linguistic signs, comprise what we call language. Literature builds on these signs. But does the analysis of language, envisaged as a system of representation, extend to the language of pictures, colours or fashion, for instance?
I visualize this course as an adventure that opens our minds to the interpretation of signs encountered in everyday and spectacular life. Our attempt shall be to pair each sociological reading with the canvas of signs adopted, for example, in a painting, an advertisement or a literary account as we pick our way through this field.
