Music, Language, Sign, and Text

Rationale and Purpose of the Module: To develop the student¿s critical understanding of the relationship of language, signs and symbols to music. This will allow students to engage their academic studies in the field of performing arts in a more critical and informed manner.

Syllabus: In this module students will be introduced to the broad twentieth-century traditions of structuralism, post-structuralism, post-modernism and cognitive linguistics. They will examine the application of theoretical structures from these traditions, in particular those promoted by Saussure, Barthes, Fauconnier, Bahktin, Kristeva, Lakoff, Turner and Foucault, in the contexts of understanding roles of meaning and the interaction of sign, text and language in musical and musicological contexts. Students will be encouraged to examine these theoretical constructs in the constructs of their own performance practices. Students will be provided with written feedback according to BA Irish Music and Dance policy.