Pre Structuralist: a word denotes the object, literary. This view relates to the Kantian theory of a priory, having knowledge of something before even knowing it.
Structuralist: a word (signifier) signifies a concept (signified).
The Structuralists perceived art is a primitive language
The sign mediates as a visual representation between the signifier and signified.
There is thus a fixed connection between a word its meaning and the representing sign in Pre Structuralism and Structuralism.
Post Structuralism: no difference between the signifier and the signified. Words only refer to other words, concepts are nothing but words. The nearest one can get to the meaning of a word is to look at how it differs from others, Jacques Derrida: différance. The true meaning of a word keeps alluding us.
The poststructuralist draws the following conclusions:
- Meaning is never fully present in any one signifier, but is infinitely deferred or suspended
- Meaning is contextual, i.e. affected by related words
- There is always an excess of meaning.
We don't speak a language, Language speaks us
Reality is a by-product of Language
The sign is disrupted, slippage occurs: Art is born
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