Text Centred Views on John Green's Novels

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Section 1 B

Possible title 2 be creative and all-encompassing ensure that it includes the author title theorist and theory.Looking for semiotics. An inquiry from John Green’s novel Looking for Alaska using Roland Barthes’ theory of Semiotics.

Text 2:

Green, J 2005, Looking for Alaska, Dutton Books, England, London.

Possible text centred focus question –identify focus and proposed theorist and associated theory.

I want to explore the use of symbols within this novel using Roland Barthes’ text-centred theory of Semiotics. This book has some especially intriguing quotes and symbols which make me question parts the novel. Here are two examples which really intrigue me:

“Most people smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.” This quote interests me, mostly because smoking is a very common action which takes place throughout this book. The character who claims this has no suicidal intent, but she continuously leaves the school-grounds to smoke, and brings everyone along with her. What does this symbol of smoking represent? Does it really represent her will to die? Or is it something else?

“If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.” This quote is written on the back of the novel. This idea that a person can relate themselves to someone else using the terminology of the weather is an interesting concept to me. Is the rain a symbol which represents the two characters relationships? Or, could it be something else, like a forecast of stormy events about to emerge?

Explanation of focus - outline reasons for selecting text, how you thought about the text in the context of a text centred reading, reasons for selecting chosen theory

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this text from start-to-finish, therefore I decided to choose the text. I also have quite an interest in this theory of symbols within a text which further detail the meanings hidden upon first reading. Could the story be completely changed with the use of semiotics? To identify and investigate symbols within a novel which a reader only simply overlooked?

Theoretical underpinnings - invoke chosen reader centred theorist and associated theories and several relevant quotes from the theorist that you would rely on if you ultimately to choose to use this reading

“Hawkes (1977) labeled Barthes as a philosopher who forms a link between structuralism and semiotics and thereby attempts to decipher the codes that are linked to reading and writing. A more extensive description of the method is presented hereafter.” (Tohar, V, Asaf, M, Kainan, A, Shahar R 2007, p. 60)

“Semiotics attempts to study language not only in terms of its communicative structure, but also in terms of the labor process which produces it.” (Rabine, L 1977, p. 44)

“If the symbolic function comprises all communicative activity, then the semiotic designates those unconscious, instinctual, bodily impulses which precede syntactic language. The semiotic also includes the effects of pre-symbolic impulses which come into language, as ‘rhythms, intonations,’ which cannot be ‘captured as sign, signifier, signified.’” (Rabine, L 1977, p.45)

Associated theorist/s – rejected – theories, theorists and reasons for rejecting associated theory and theorist/s

I decided to use semiotics for this question as it relates to symbols within the text. I could have used Hermeneutics, however, that theory requires an interpretation. Hermeneutics also studies the use of other literary texts used within a text, which do not relate to the question asked. I could have used intertextuality; however, this theory requires a relationship between two different texts. Therefore, I believe semiotics was the best choice for this given question.

Criticisms of chosen theorist – quotes from the theorist’s critics arguing against the use of the theory (at least three)

“In a clever piece entitled, "Decoding Roland Barthes: The Obit of a Structuralist," which appeared in the August 1980 issue of Harper's, Hugh Kenner combined in unequal proportions polemics (a large dose) and piety (a minuscule dose), mocking semiotics even as he marked the passing of Roland Barthes.” (Schor, N 1986, p. 27)

“It appears that a continued reluctance to undergo a healthy epistemological identity crisis will only underline a central problem- the difficulty of defining semiotics as a unique discipline. Semioticians should explain why scholars like Levi-Strauss, Barthes, Peirce, Carnap, Jakobson, and Derrida are semioticians rather than anthropologists, linguists, logicians, structuralists, or phenomenologists who have used semiotics as a method of analysis in their respective disciplines at different times in their careers. If they cannot, then semiotics should be seen as a method and, like structuralism or empiricism, used as a support for other scholarly disciplines whenever it is appropriate.” (Privateer, P and Laferriere, D 1981, p. 315)

“The primary problem here is not with the term sign but with the status of mediation and the assumptions of the interpreter. For without a preconceived, a priori idea of representation, there can be no such thing as a sign; a thing-in-itself, by virtue of being an essence, need not depend upon a sign for identity or meaning.” (Privateer, P and Laferriere, D 1981, p. 316)

Text/s or article/s to use to support this focus question

Tohar, V, Asaf, M, Kainan, A, Shahar R 2007, ‘An Alternative Approach for Personal Narrative Interpretation: The Semiotics of Roland Barthes’, Kaye College of Education Beer Sheva, Israel, pp. 57-70.

Rabine, L 1977, ‘Julia Kristéva: Semiotics and Women’, Pacific Coast Philology, Vol. 12, pp. 41-49.

Orr, L 1986, ‘Intertextuality and the Cultural Text in Recent Semiotics’, College English, Vol. 48 No. 8, pp. 811-823.

Section 1 C

Possible title 3 be creative and all-encompassing ensure that it includes the author title theorist and theory.

Off-road Focalization. John Green’s novel Paper Towns investigated using Gerard Gennette’s theory of Focalization.

Text 3:

Green, J 2008, Paper Towns, Dutton Books, England, London.

Possible