Structuralism and Semiotics

Terence Hawkes is Emeritus Professor of English at Cardiff University. He is the author of a number of books on literary theory and on Shakespeare, including That Shakespeherian Rag (1986), Meaning by Shakespeare (1992) and Shakespeare in the Present (2002). He is General Editor of New Accents and of the Accents on Shakespeare series, also published by Routledge, and was the founding Editor of Textual Practice.

• General Editor’s Preface 1 Introduction Vico; Piaget; Structuralism2 Linguistics and Anthropology 3 The Structures of Literature 4 A Science of Signs 5 Conclusions: New ‘New Criticism’ For Old ‘New Criticism’?

'A compact volume that performs marvels in the difficult art of summarizing (without betrayal) the complex theories that for the past seventy-five years have been labelled "structuralist". Hawkes ranges from Vico to Barthes, writing with a lucidity and grasp of the essential points that is nothing short of astonishing.' - Choice 'Occasionally a book appears which, because of its scope and vision, serves not just as a tool for our field, but as a suggestion of a larger enterprise. Hawkes provides such a work in this exposition and synthesis of major figures and works of the intellectual movement structuralism and it derivative semiotics. His treatment is thorough and scholarly, yet accessible to readers not already versed in the methods, concepts and argot of the movement.' - Quarterly Journal of Speech