reference: Structuralism and Semiotics pp. 123-134 (focus: 123-25; 130-34)
e. g. national flag, ads of your choice
reference: R. Barthes "Myth Today"
All social practices as sign-systems. E.g. clothes
He regards all social practices as sign-systems which operate on the model of language. Any actual 'speech' presupposes a system (langue) which is being used.
e.g. sentence: an ensemble of blouse + skirt + high heeled shoes

blouse + trousers + snickers
system: a. blouse, shirt, T-shirt

b. skirt, trousers

　

on Punk Style

　

• Dick Hebdige thinks that Levi-Strauss's concept of "homology" can be used to read punk subculture as a third level of discourse.  Punk style "deconstruct" itself by representing the experience of class contradictions in the forms of visual puns, bondage, ripped tee shirts and the link.  In linguistic terms, these stylistic signifiers of sex and class refer to other signifiers, not to signifieds.
• As a result, punk style becomes a "dislocated, ironic, and self-aware" third-level discourse signalling the values of contradiction, disruption, and process.
  1. Hebdige uses as support Resistance Through Rituals, in which the authors use the concepts of homology and bricolage to explain how a certain subcultural style appeal to a particular group of people.
  2. "The skinheads were cited to exemplify this principle.  The boots, braces, and cropped hair were only considered appropriate and hence meaningful because they communicated the desired qualities: 'hardness, masculity and workingclassness.'" (Praxis, 184)

(external)Literary Criticism Databank: Structuralism and Semiotics