Abstract
Signification theory constitutes a theoretical foundation of cultural studies as it is built on in-depth explorations of Saussure's language theory. Signification implies the requirement of decoding. Cultural signification is realized when the signified in first level symbolic system is hollowed out and filled in by the second level symbolic system, and it then exhibits as a mythological path to bourgeois ideology. Signification informs the implications of literary works and makes them intelligible from the perspective of semiotics. Along this line of delineation, we may find a possible solution to Hillis Miller’s paradox of literary identification mode between innocent reading and decoding reading from the perspective of cultural studies. The papaer claims that the two reading methods are not necessarily contradictory to each other, as the signification of a literary work to its implications operates also unconcealedly in innocent reading. The paper claims the plausibility of its theoretical observation in examining the destiny of Chinese literature in the new century.
First Page
125
Last Page
131
Recommended Citation
Liu, Yang. 2012. "Cultural Signification and Literary Signification: with a Tentative Solution to Hillis Miller's Paradox of Literary Identification Mode." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 32, (5): pp.125-131. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol32/iss5/4
