The semiosis of the sequence of signs in a narrative

pp. 267-274

in: Michael Herzfeld, Margot D. Lenhart, Semiotics 1980, Berlin, Springer, 1982

Abstract

The generally accepted notion of the addressee's ideological bias as one of the major conditioners of his perception of a sign system can be examined from the addresser's point of view and his adjustment of his text to the ideological bent of his audience. These adjustments can be, of course, of many types beginning with the elementary one, the clarification of the ideology of the text, which prevents future misinterpretation, and advancing to perhaps one of the most sophisticated types — the addresser's imposition of his ideology on his addressee in such a way that the latter accepts the alien ideology unawares. Further along in the addresser's strategy he not only covertly imposes his own ideology on the addressee but also forces him to commit himself to it. In this case the addressee, or the reader, of the artistic text, covertly manipulated by the addresser, or the author, into an alien ideology, cannot easily reject it afterwards because of his previous commitment to it. Such manipulation takes place in Pushkin's narrative, The Captain's Daughter.