A Semiotic Approach to Narratology

Abstract

Abstract

Semiotics principally investigates and explores the production and function of signs and sign systems as well as the methods of their signification. It is mainly concerned with how a sign signifies and what precedes it at deeper level to result in the manifestation of its meaning. For this purpose, it offers a set of unified principles that underlie the construction, signification and communication of any sign system. The literary semiotics seeks to explain how the textual components get their significative value within a given literary discourse. In order to do so, the conventions, discursive forces and cultural aspects of the text should be taken into consideration in explaining the processes of signification. So, this article tries to give a semiotic view to the study of narratives by desrcibing the semiotic aspects of the previous and recently devised literary theories and gives a methodological clarity to them.