Four good books on the matter

Here are four good books to read that can get you thinking about semiotics (or semiology, as Barthes uses. Not exactly the same, but close enough).

1. de Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York, 1959. This is where it all began, in modern terms. de Saussure suggests at an overarching study of signs, part of which would be linguistics. It is not essential to read this book, but it will be referred to so often it is just easier to read it and know what he was talking about. We get from him the crucial distinction of langue/parole, which is picked up in the next book:

2. Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology. Hill and Wang, New York, 1964. The more I read the late great French critic Roland Barthes, the more I like him. This is a short book, and it is one of his drier ones. For a good read go with Empire of Signs (also Hill and Wang), which is a "practical" application of these theories (if you know the book, you will understand the scare quotes), but this book is not too dificult for the average voracious reader and it is more systematic. It is also very well written.

3. Eco, Umberto. Misreadings (English Edition, translated by William Weaver, of course). Harcourt Brace, Orlando, 1993. If you are reading these in order, I have inserted this little, fun book to relieve the intensity of two early semiotics books in a row. Misreadings should help temper the urge to over-apply semiotics and will give you a good appreciation of the humor with which Eco can bring to the topic.

4. Eco, Umberto. A Theory of Semiotics. Indiana University Press, Bloomington. 1979. If you read only one of these books, this should be it. Fantastic. Read it and read it again. There is a lot in here, and it is well presented, although certainly not light beach reading. Summer's over and it is time to dig into something real!