Reading Verbal and Visual Signs (MLI345)

Content

The linguistics part of the course focuses on the pragmatics and 'grammar' of visual signs and their interaction with verbal signs in texts. It examines the structure, function and uses of verbal and visual signs, including images, pictograms and writing, and the ways in which they combine to make meaning. Approaches from material philology and pragmatics are applied to a holistic study of written texts from different historical periods and representing different media.

The literature part of the course explores the ways reading, seeing, writing, and creating verbal and visual signs takes on meaning in literary landscapes via literary theory. Mythological/Archetypal theory, New Formalism, Cultural studies/Post-Colonial and Process-based approaches are among the methods that could be used to interpret texts and discover complex relationships and methods of interpretation in the literature half.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

The students will gain knowledge of:

• the structure, functions and uses of verbal and visual signs
• pictograms, proto-writing and different kinds of writing system systems
• the ways in which meaning is produced through a combination of verbal and non-verbal elements
• the interaction of material/medium, function and form in texts
• visual literacy as a set of skills for interpreting images
• theories of language, literacy, myth/symbol and identity
• the contribution visual and verbal signs make to literary structure

Skills

By the end of the course, the students will be able to:

• define and describe verbal and visual signs
• relate the use of visual elements to the medium, context and function of a text
• apply a range of descriptive and critical tools to the analysis of visual elements
• examine and inquire into the attitudes, values and beliefs conveyed by visual elements in a text
• decode and interpret verbal and visual signs
• critically discuss issues of positioning that underlie all text and signal intertextuality with previous ones
• explain the way signs are built into the structure of texts

General competence

By the end of the course, the students will be able to:

• relate different uses of visual and verbal elements to changing media and functions
• critically discuss the attitudes, values and beliefs conveyed by a text
• apply theories from literacy studies, traditional literary theory, and cultural studies to analyze verbal and visual elements of texts

Required prerequisite knowledge

Exam

Coursework requirements

• One obligatory assignment (min. 350 words) in the Literature module. Pass/Fail. A pass is required to sit the exam.

If an assignment is assessed as not approved on the first attempt, students are given one opportunity to submit a revised assignment by a specified deadline.

• Compulsory attendance at seminars is required for each homexam, with no more than two absences in either half of the course.

Students who are absent from more than two seminar meetings in one half of the course will not be allowed to sit the exam relating to that half. The student must be present for at least 2/3 of the duration of the individual seminar meeting for attendance to be recorded.

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Course teacher:

Course coordinator:

Course teacher:

Study Adviser:

Method of work

Open for

Literacy Studies - Master's Degree programme and Lektor programme - students with English as a major.

Limited number of places. When you sign up on Student Web you will see whether the course has already been filled or not.

Course assessment

Literature