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Semiotics and Interpretation
“Accessible yet challenging, this book will be the indispensable introductory text for semiotics―indeed for any theoretical course in the humanities and social sciences that deals with the theory of these disciplines.”― Choice
“The book offers . . . a clutch of examples of semiotics usefully and intelligently applied, which Schole’s patient, cheerful tone and his resolutely concrete vocabulary manage to combine into a breezily informative American confection.”―Terence Hawkes, Times Literary Supplement
“This critique demonstrates once more that Scholes . . . is one of the most authoritative scholars in the field of semiotics.”― The Antioch Review
“[Scholes] applies the range of semiotic theory to a series of other texts―poems, stories, films, a scene from a play, bumper stickers, even a part of the human anatomy. . . . When we finish this text (which includes a useful glossary and descriptive bibliography), we feel that we have learned the basic principles of semiotics and can apply them in our teaching and criticism; as a bonus, we gain many new insights into familiar texts.”―Richard Pearce, Novel
“[Scholes] is among our best interpreters of literary theory. . . . He provides not only an argument for semiotics but an informed criticism of it as well.”―Martin Green, The Literary Review
“The book offers . . . a clutch of examples of semiotics usefully and intelligently applied, which Schole’s patient, cheerful tone and his resolutely concrete vocabulary manage to combine into a breezily informative American confection.”―Terence Hawkes, Times Literary Supplement
“This critique demonstrates once more that Scholes . . . is one of the most authoritative scholars in the field of semiotics.”― The Antioch Review
“[Scholes] applies the range of semiotic theory to a series of other texts―poems, stories, films, a scene from a play, bumper stickers, even a part of the human anatomy. . . . When we finish this text (which includes a useful glossary and descriptive bibliography), we feel that we have learned the basic principles of semiotics and can apply them in our teaching and criticism; as a bonus, we gain many new insights into familiar texts.”―Richard Pearce, Novel
“[Scholes] is among our best interpreters of literary theory. . . . He provides not only an argument for semiotics but an informed criticism of it as well.”―Martin Green, The Literary Review
162 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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130 people want to read
About the author
Robert Scholes
82 books17 followersRobert E. Scholes was an American literary critic and theorist. He is known for his ideas on fabulation and metafiction.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 26, 2025
السيمياء و التأويل.
هذا الكتاب المدهش الذي يجعل الفرد يوسع مداركه اللغوي و التخيلية والذي يجعل الفرد يغوص في الرواية و الأعمال الادبية ككل، هذا الكتاب عبارة عن جوهرة ثمينة بيد القارئ العربي فالفرد قبل ان يقراه لا مثل بعد ان يقراه.
فبعد ان تنتهي منه سوف تفقه فلسفة الشفرات و الألغاز في العمل الادبي وسوف ترى برؤيتك الذاتية الاعمال و تفرق بين أعراف الشعوب و الثوابت لذا الانسان وان تميز بين الماضي و المضارع و المستقبل، وان ترا بعدة رؤى و تأويلات فترى بعين الكاتب و الناقد و المعلم و الطالب.
وتكن في الشخصيات ومعاهم وبينهم.
ولكن فيه من الخطا ان ااخذ جميع مفاهيم الكتاب وأطبقها على واقعنا العربية فباب السيمياء و الشعر اعتقد انه لا يتناسب مع لغتنا العريقة و الدقيقة التي لها قواعد وبحار في الشعر وخلاف الرواية الحديثة وهي منتج غربي.
عمل يستحق المطالعة.
هذا الكتاب المدهش الذي يجعل الفرد يوسع مداركه اللغوي و التخيلية والذي يجعل الفرد يغوص في الرواية و الأعمال الادبية ككل، هذا الكتاب عبارة عن جوهرة ثمينة بيد القارئ العربي فالفرد قبل ان يقراه لا مثل بعد ان يقراه.
فبعد ان تنتهي منه سوف تفقه فلسفة الشفرات و الألغاز في العمل الادبي وسوف ترى برؤيتك الذاتية الاعمال و تفرق بين أعراف الشعوب و الثوابت لذا الانسان وان تميز بين الماضي و المضارع و المستقبل، وان ترا بعدة رؤى و تأويلات فترى بعين الكاتب و الناقد و المعلم و الطالب.
وتكن في الشخصيات ومعاهم وبينهم.
ولكن فيه من الخطا ان ااخذ جميع مفاهيم الكتاب وأطبقها على واقعنا العربية فباب السيمياء و الشعر اعتقد انه لا يتناسب مع لغتنا العريقة و الدقيقة التي لها قواعد وبحار في الشعر وخلاف الرواية الحديثة وهي منتج غربي.
عمل يستحق المطالعة.
March 28, 2025
For whatever reason, it’s been a struggle to get proper reading motivation this year, so I decided to change tact and read one of my theory books to see if it helped. I don’t know what it says about me that it kind of worked.
In my university theory classes I got very into the idea of semiotics – I think in part, it was engaging that every theorist seemed to have a different take on it. I wound up picking up a few books on semiotics over the years in the insane idea that someday I’d go back and read them and enjoy them, as if it wasn’t just some weird undergrad fad. Unfortunately I was right, and I enjoyed this a lot, because I’m a complete dork.
Scholes writes a compelling introduction to the world of semiotic analysis, bringing it out of the ephemeral world of theory and into a praxis. He grounds his study in his first chapter by writing a stunning theory of education that I’m still kind of dazzled over; showing how learning happens primarily through the act of writing, or re-creation – taking the ideas handed to us and filtering them through our own consciousness into something new. The act of assembling the right words to succinctly understand the ideas received, that is where the action of learning lies. This isn’t necessarily an imperative part to unlocking Scholes’ writing, but it strikes me as representative to what you’re going to get out of this book: a really thorough and engaging exploration of academia and study.
Much of the book is made up by Scholes applying his semiotic approach to various modes: film, poetry, prose, etc. He ends by expanding his project, first by applying several theoretic approaches to one text, and then by applying a semiotic study to language itself as he examines the way misogyny has manipulated the evolution of English. This process serves to create an exhaustive, but not exhausting, example of how semiotics apply to each aspect of creative analysis. By the end, I felt fully reassured that my undergrad excitement hadn’t been in vain; not only can semiotic theory be a fun approach to the study of meaning and the creation of meaning, it is also an effective approach to understanding the way we approach texts, and how a story is created between the author and the reader. An aspect Scholes repeats is how literary storytelling is formed by those texts which encourage active participation from both sides; meaning is not out of the reach of the reader and it has not died with the author, rather, the beauty of storytelling is in the layers of signs and codes that both parties effortlessly sift through the sieves of their own perceptions, creating and reading and learning all at once.
In my university theory classes I got very into the idea of semiotics – I think in part, it was engaging that every theorist seemed to have a different take on it. I wound up picking up a few books on semiotics over the years in the insane idea that someday I’d go back and read them and enjoy them, as if it wasn’t just some weird undergrad fad. Unfortunately I was right, and I enjoyed this a lot, because I’m a complete dork.
Scholes writes a compelling introduction to the world of semiotic analysis, bringing it out of the ephemeral world of theory and into a praxis. He grounds his study in his first chapter by writing a stunning theory of education that I’m still kind of dazzled over; showing how learning happens primarily through the act of writing, or re-creation – taking the ideas handed to us and filtering them through our own consciousness into something new. The act of assembling the right words to succinctly understand the ideas received, that is where the action of learning lies. This isn’t necessarily an imperative part to unlocking Scholes’ writing, but it strikes me as representative to what you’re going to get out of this book: a really thorough and engaging exploration of academia and study.
Much of the book is made up by Scholes applying his semiotic approach to various modes: film, poetry, prose, etc. He ends by expanding his project, first by applying several theoretic approaches to one text, and then by applying a semiotic study to language itself as he examines the way misogyny has manipulated the evolution of English. This process serves to create an exhaustive, but not exhausting, example of how semiotics apply to each aspect of creative analysis. By the end, I felt fully reassured that my undergrad excitement hadn’t been in vain; not only can semiotic theory be a fun approach to the study of meaning and the creation of meaning, it is also an effective approach to understanding the way we approach texts, and how a story is created between the author and the reader. An aspect Scholes repeats is how literary storytelling is formed by those texts which encourage active participation from both sides; meaning is not out of the reach of the reader and it has not died with the author, rather, the beauty of storytelling is in the layers of signs and codes that both parties effortlessly sift through the sieves of their own perceptions, creating and reading and learning all at once.
May 5, 2020
Scholes got me (finally) to take semiotics seriously.
January 20, 2023
A true intellectual pleasure; equally brilliant, engaging, and challenging.
February 22, 2025
For a genre usually filled with self indulgent fluff - every chapter of this genuinely stuck me with a new concept I was thinking about for the rest of the day.
June 21, 2009
Who else explicates bumper stickers and then does a textual (yes, textual) analysis of clitorides? It's that awesome.
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November 3, 2010some good clit theory in the "decoding mama" chapter
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews