Semiotics

Overview

The Semiotics programme of Eötvös Loránd University The interdisciplinary Semiotics MA program at ELTE trains students to become well-trained specialists in semiotics of culture with a global overview of the various fields of humanities: literary studies, linguistics, philosophy, visual arts and general art studies – including approaches to the fine arts, films, theatre and music – and also the most contemporary methods of research synthetized from a semiotic methodological point of view. At the same time, choosing the specific field for degree thesis students can gain specialized knowledge in one subfield of the semiotics of humanities (e.g., the literary, visual, musical, theoretical semiotics, and ethnosemiotics). 

The program is designed to be flexible to motivate students to find the best Hungarian specialists in the given field and assist them to become involved in international research and dialogues with foreign scholars and lecturers. The curriculum consists of courses on the history and theory of semiotics; language, communication, texts and translation; theory of meaning, logic, argumentation; field studies of cultural, national and special semiotic systems; various forms of applied semiotics and semiotic pragmatics in general. The program also puts emphasis on the preparation of students for PhD studies to plan their research career.

This program enables students to become versatile experts on culture, having substantial knowledge and competence in understanding, analysing and influencing both general and specific cultural phenomena and the various forms of interaction and pragmatic exchange, and innovative system construction in general.

Strength of program

• an interdisciplinary orientation within the humanities;

• the application of the valuable research and methodological results of classical semiotics linking them to the most recent scholarly results in the discipline;

• equilibrium in teaching semiotic theory and its implications in applied semiotics;

• flexibility in encouraging students to find their own subfield by enabling their specialization (free option possibilities built into the curriculum);

• international context for research and education;

• offering perspectives for students for doctoral studies in directions not restricted to semiotics.

Career paths

The labour market for specialists with an MA degree in semiotics includes job opportunities for experts who are expected to have the skills of

• understanding current cultural movements;

• grasping and describing the developmental logic in contemporary arts and the various forms of intercultural communication both within social interaction and national and international cultural texts;

• interpreting and describing different media and message transfer processes;

• analysing conflict, argumentation systems and philosophical discourse in any field which can be interpreted from the point of view of sign system constructions;

• building models, typologies and create system-descriptions.

Employment may also be found in the fields linked to applied semiotics (e.g. sign system translation activities; analysis of behaviour symptoms in the work-place; symptom-interpretation in various social or work groups; activities for handling situations in spheres where special sign systems are involved, etc.).

Job examples

Researchers at universities, in museums; copywriters, journalists, cultural critics; scriptwriters for videogames; enterprisers; translators; IT specialists; PR specialists.