Abstract
From the standpoint of Modeling Systems Theory formulated by Thomas Sebeok and Marcel Danesi in 2000, the reason why a fictional narrative can be rightly considered outstanding and appreciated by different generations of readers/viewers is not just because it has depicted “typical characters in typical contexts,” but more often because the text itself, understood in the Sebeokian sense as a composite modeling strategy, has achieved relatively higher degrees of fullness in creating these characters as models. As a further result, it has developed a pluralistic space for interpretation and fulfilled the truthful reflection of shared human emotion. To this end, the text needs to adopt a unique way of representation in creating characters, to wit, “anti-identity construction.” It is different from “defamiliarization” in that it is not to deliberately pursue a sort of formal or structural strangeness; on the contrary, it is only to seek to represent human experiences with high-level fidelity, as well as their global restoration, and to construct a “panorama” with innovative perspectives, thus demolishing stereotypical models people form in their minds. In essence, it is a return to dynamic Umwelten, capable of facilitating the pluralistic meaning generation and the ultimate semiosic reflection of shared human emotion.
Acknowledgements
This paper was supported by the Jiangsu Social Science Youth Fund (15TQC004), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (First class funding, 2015M580444), the Significant Chinese National Social Science Fund (15ZDB092), and the Second Phase of the Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD: Phase II) (20140901).
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Anthropological-semiotics of rhythm and animating modernity in China: A rhythmanalysis of Princess Iron Fan
- Individuating in the dark: Diagrammatic reasoning and attentional shifts
- The free slave paradox
- Size and shape depictions in the manual modality: A taxonomy of iconic devices in Adamorobe Sign Language
- The thematic structure of homepages: An exploratory systemic-functional account
- Revisiting dynamic space in film from a semiotic perspective
- A semiotic analysis of anti-identity construction in fictional narratives from the viewpoint of modeling systems theory
- Rethinking semiotics: Toward a theory of intentional sign
- Two approaches to defining internal, external, and zero-focalization
- Zero sign duality in visual semiotics
- Conceptual embodiment in visual semiotics
- Reading palm-up signs: Neurosemiotic overview of a common hand gesture
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