Star Wars semiotics – HiLobrow
▻http://hilobrow.com/2010/07/14/star-wars-semiotics
Over at the blog Star Wars Modern, the Brooklyn-based sculptor/theorist John Powers has decided to map the “visual program” of Star Wars IV. In order to do so, he’s appropriated the so-called Klein Four-Group diagram [better known — e.g., to those of us familiar with Frederic Jameson’s use of the tool — as a Greimas or Semiotic Square] employed by art critic/theorist Rosalind Krauss to map “sculpture in the expanded field” back in 1978.
According to one Greimas exegete, who in this quote sounds like a Magister Ludi, the semiotic square is a map of logical possibilities. As such, it can be used as a heuristic device, and in fact, attempting to fill it in stimulates the imagination. The puzzle pieces, especially the neutral term, seldom fall conveniently into place…. Playing with the possibilities of the square is authorized, since the theory of the square allows us to see all thinking as a game, with the logical relations as the rules and concepts current in a given language and culture as the pieces.
Here, for what it’s worth, is Krauss’ diagram:
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UPDATE: John Powers has responded thoughtfully to my constructive criticism, and also sent me a rendering of my Star Wars Semiotic Square: