An Introduction to Literary Semiotics

FAIN: FA-11322-76

Philip E. Lewis
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (New York, NY 10065-8124)

To study literary semiotics, i.e., the systematic study of signs, the processes of signification, and the structures of meaning at the various levels of literary discourse. Grantee will demonstrate the applicability of semiotic analysis in practical literary criticism through a reading of works by Descartes and Pascal. Through a semiotic reading, the underlying epistemological structures of classical writing will be discerned and the groundwork for an inquiry into the problematic relationship between the literary and the ideological elements of philosophical discourse will be established.