Semiotics

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the subject of "semiotics" and explains that it is the study of signs involving words, sounds, and body language or mannerisms and involves the examination of the roles that signs play as components to social life. The paper states that semiotics investigates the nature of signs and the underlying laws that may govern them. The paper then applies semiotics to the study of the film "Donnie Darko", explaining that a semiotic analysis of certain components of this film could focus in on particular characters, relationships, or sequences of events.

From the Paper:

"Donnie's relationship with Gretchen in the film is very simple and straight forward. This relationship grounds Donnie in the conventional reality, and provides balance between the parallel universes he is able to tap into. Balance between good and evil, dark and light is symbolized through out the film through sequences of events. Examples of these sequences are when Donnie's teacher fight for creative freedom (good) results in her termination by the school (evil), and when Donnie's act of vandalism involving burning down the motivational speaker's house (evil) results in the discovery of the child pornography ring. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Chandler, D. (2005). Introduction. Semiotics for Beginners. Retrieved 6/15/2007 from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html.
• No Author Given (2000). Film Semiotics: A Multi-Linguistic Analysis. Retrieved 6/15/2007 from http://www.sebsteph.com/Professional/sebsportfolio/journals/film_semiotics.htm.

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