Friday, May 15, 2009

Saussure and Britney




Saussure believed that the sig is always related to another sign, bringing forth the idea of the signifier and signified. There is an oral/ visual that people relate to each other. In the above picture to the left of Britney Spears she is sitting on her knees, looking up at the camera, very innocent and child like. What we know of Britney currently, this is not the image she portrays. The visual instigates the positive feelings of health, youth, innocence, happiness. The visual of a young Britney gives birth to the words as we perceive them, the signifier and the signified.

In the top picture, Britney becomes the archetype for crazy, angry, sickly and a loss of innocence. This is much different than the other picture. Though it is the same person, the signifier and signified go hand in hand. Saussure says, " Language is a system of signs that express ideas" (77. The signs of Britney in these two pictures provoke thought and language, positive and negative.


Saussure, Ferdinand de. "Course in General Linguistics." Literary Teory: An Anthology. Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Blackwell. 1998.

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