Hodge and Kress - Social Semiotics
294
negotiating term "semiotics"
"The smallest semiotic form that has concrete existence is the message. The
message has directionality - it has a source and a goal, a social context and
purpose. 1t is oriented to the semiotic process, the social process by which
meaning is constructed and exchanged, which takes place in what we will call
the semiosic plane."
discourse

"The message is about something, which supposedly exists
outside itself. It is connected to a world to which it refers in some way, and its
meaning derives from this representitive or mimetic function it  performs.We will
call the plane in which representation occurs the mimetic plane."
text

message clusters

Distinguish between "text" and "discourse"

Sign systems - not as static as may have been revealed through "mainstream"

295
continued :
"So texts are both the
:aterial realization of systems of signs, and also the site where change
ntinually takes place" -texts change to exist - system
Discourse:
"Discourse in this sense is the site where s?cial forms of
organization engage with systems of signs in the production of texts, thus
reproducing or. changing th~ se.ts ~f meaning~ ~nd values which ~nake up a
culture. So for mstance the mst1tut1on of med1cme defines a spectfic set of
meanings which are constantly involved in the social processes which are
appropriate to that institution, and engaged in by significant classes of
participant, such as patient, surgeon, researcher and so on."

Genre:
"
Such systems often operate by specifying genres of
texts (typical forms of text which link kinds of producer, consumer, topic,
medium, manner and occasion). These control the behaviour of producers of
such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers. Genre-rules are
exemplary instances of logonomic systems, and are a major vehicle for their
operation and transmission."

"Genres only exist in so far as a social group declares and enforces the rules
that constitute them. For instance, there are clear rules which regulate the
interactions among participants that are called a committee meeting."...committee meeting:
"The texts which are formed in the process of a
committee meeting therefore have a form which codes the set of practices,
relations of participants, their expectations and purposes. The form of such texts
-whether as 'full transcript', or as 'minutes of the meeting' -themselves become
recognized as , and become potent as a semiotic category."

295-196
Novel -
"The 'Rise of the Novel', so
is a history that traces a set of historically specific relationships that
involves the position of classes, definitions (and discourses) of gender, the stateof technology, leisure and education, class-based notions of the family, and so
on. The history of the genre of 'novel' since its 'rise' equally traces shifts in these
relations, the appearance as salient factors of new discourses and of shifts in
existent discourses. Genre therefore represents one semiotic category that codes
the effects of social change, of social struggle."

296

Dominant discourse - normative behavior
"Processes of struggle and resistance are themselves decisive
aspects of social formations, and affect every level of semiotic systems. At the
micro level, power is put to the test in every exchange, and the logonomic
system typically is a record of this by classifying large areas of semiosis as
'private', to be treated as beyond the reach of the 'public'/social."

resistance/ power - moving back and forth
296-297
Gender - ideology - body talk "in so far as it conditions actual behaviours, its
most potent form of expression is when it is inscribed in and organized through
spatial codes and their transforms."
298
Miss Seductress Miss Winner - restraint is valued
description - signals w/ o ideological effect
Men/ women in business-sexualization
 who is the writer writing to? What assumptions does the writer make? Where does this position reader in terms of what is going on?

 "
Ms Winner, is not only described differently, but set in
a different semiotic transaction. Ms Winner's signals are so characterized by
multiple contradictions that she is hard to categorize. The author lists some of the
codes- mannerisms, clothing, posture, manner of speech- but hardly bothers to
indicate how the clusters of contradictory messages are put together or how the
contradictions will be resolved. The problems of different audiences for her
signals are resolved by suppressing their receivers, half suppressing even the fact
that she is producing the signals ('she knows [her abilities] will shine through
anyway'). By these means the transactions she is represented as being engaged
in are left vague but comfortably distant."

"The ideological potency of the text is established by the semiotic transaction on
the semiosic plane interacting with the semiosic relations of the represented
world. There is a double reception-position, offering different possibilities of
solidarity and power or submission to the author/authority. The represented
world contains conventional signals for different versions of social relations, two
contradictory ideologies of gender relationships, one characterized by power, the
other by intimacy."
Reminds me of high school principal - recent hire - criticisms
Amish
 Discussion - patched sleeve tweed jacket - harder to identify for women
Men - powerful - sexualized - particularly business men
Hilary
Irony - what not to wear - pi shirt - made her throw it away. No men on the show - except for gay sidekick ...or the husband who put her up to the show. 

restraint 
create & own style beyond sweatpants...why do men not need to do this? Have this journey? Body issues - negotiated through fabric combinations? Something more there. 

Rise of choosing dress - "this is it" - that moment - weeping. Laugh. Had to go look w sisters mother...ran away, found one on own for 100. No weeping.