Week 1: Semiotics

Lecture Notes

Links from Lecture

Wrestling: Big Daddy VS Giant Haystacks 1981

Dimensions of Dialogue by Jan Švankmajer

Key Information from the Text

Jonathan Bignall: Media Semiotics p5-17

Roland Barthes: The World of Wrestling from Mythologies

Reading this text, I was able to gather a more in depth understanding of the complexities of wrestling and how it is very much a social commentary. I think that the most prominent factor of it is the underlying fight between good and evil, how the audience will not care about how 'fake' or 'exaggerated' the action may be so long as the underdog defeats the immoral villain. The use of contrast in a more realistic fight between major matches to make the viewers feel moved by their 'fair play', when they would have been bored had every fight been like that, shows an interesting view of how a large part of society thinks.