Semiotics Preliminary Exercise 1

Roland Barthes' Theory of Semiotics

Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, who analyzed the signification process and the relationships between denotation and connotation. A connotative sign is a sign that communicates is meaning based on the context, like how the wedding dress in the clip means something related to marriage. A denotative sign is a literal meaning or the straightforward meaning, like the wedding dress in the movie clip.   

We watched a clip from the movie hunger games in which we analyzed the connotative signs and the denotative signs. Hunger games is a movie where a nation has 12 districts and the capitol, and each year two representatives from each district are selected to participate in the hunger games. The clip we watched was where the character Katniss was showing a wedding dressed that transformed into a mocking jay dress.