On Meaning Production Process in Short Stories: A Semiotic Approach to Hwang Sunwon’s ”Cranes”

Abstract

Semiotics, as a signification approach, makes it possible to unfold meaning formation process of the works of art. Each work has an idiosyncratic semantic universe created by the logical systematization of signs. The situation is also valid in the literary world. The impactful interaction of semiotics and literature forms the multidisciplinary approach titled literary semiotics. Meaning production process in the narratives can also be examined through the approach. However, the unique characteristic of rules and concepts of the literary semiotics prevent the implementers to apply it to the analysis of the texts which requires penetrating and explaining various meaning layers to be able to reveal the semantic organization and meaning production process of the texts. Therefore, in this study, the aim is to make the application process and the concepts of semiotics in the analysis of the literary texts more comprehensible. To do that, one of the famous Korean short story has been chosen. The focus is to reveal the meaning production process of the story within the scope of literary semiotics. In the light of the findings gathered from semiotic analysis of the short story “Cranes”, it can be suggested that the story was produced on oppositions of war time. These oppositions can be summarized in the form of leaving homeland/remaining in homeland – life/ death – freedom/captivity, or duty/friendship. Also, the oppositions found out in the end of analysis can be accounted as link between the real life and the text itself.