Elliot Zwira @ The Book Store
Barthes (1977) and Jacobson (1965) explore the literary concepts of denotation, connotation, metaphor and metonym to illustrate the integration of literature and communication.

In literature, critics have drawn a distinction between denotations and connotations in expressing and interpreting experiences. For instance, the denotative meaning of a poem is the obvious or surface interpretation that the reader draws from it.

The connotative meaning, on the other hand, is the deeper meaning underneath the poem, which is more suggestive and less obvious.

Poets usually use a two-fold presentation of ideas, making it possible for them to impart their profound feelings of anger, distress, frustration, love and hatred to their readers, who are themselves not unfamiliar with such experiences as a result of shared cultural norms and values.

As such, poems are usually read at both the denotative and connotative levels. One of the poems that come to mind in demonstrating the interface between literature and communication through interpretation of symbols, is Freedom T. Nyamubaya’s “A Mysterious Marriage”.

Denotatively, the poem is about two children, whose ideologies are infringed by “armed robbers” to the extent that they seek solace in blood and iron, as they realise that fighting back is the only option left to them.

In their search for freedom, they get married, coming home after the war to wild cheers and merriment characteristic of a “wedding”.

Unfortunately, the wedding fails to take place, as only the bridegroom (Independence) is present and the bride (Freedom) fails to materialise much to the chagrin of the waiting crowd, which feels cheated and betrayed.

The general atmosphere is that of betrayal at the personal level.

At the connotative level, however, the illocutionary force suffices to express the ugly consequences of imperialism on the African continent. The names “Freedom” and “Independence” epitomise those values which Africans hold dear and feel are robbed by aliens. They do not take lightly the robbery of these values by anyone.

The union of the values enshrined in freedom and independence in matrimony suggests their importance to the welfare of the oppressed Africans. Freedom, who is only seen as a shadow, is symbolic of mistrust, deceit and snobbishness at the deeper sense of both the personal and national levels.

Charles Mungoshi’s poem “Winter” also aptly illustrates how denotation and connotation work. Denotatively, the poem is about an old man at wits’ end, who is so engrossed in his reminiscences of the past that he fails to espy the persona invading his privacy. The scene that he is watching is that of destruction as suggested by the phrase “pulled down”. The pervading mood is that of aridity and coldness as the imagery of “brick-and-rubble” and “the cold July wind” suggests.

At the connotative level the cold voice of politics and its consequences overwhelm the more obvious diatribes and internal woes of the old man, who, having lost variety and reason, is now at sixes and sevens as regards to his past glory.

Because to him change is infectious, he fails to accept the reality of the changing tide which has swept him off his feet.

The depiction of the road “Pioneer Street” suggests political allusion because Rhodesia’s first settlers dubbed themselves “pioneers”. Hence, the association of the street with all that is sinking and decaying connotes the idea of a sinking ship against the currents of change.

The symbolic bastions of colonialism are reduced to rubble by the new political dispensation.

Although the race and cultural identity of the old man are not explicitly stated, the “wilted rose in his button hole” expresses cultural connotations. Notably, he alludes to the demolishers of the buildings as “they” which is rather detached, against the collective “we”, which betrays his racial identity.

In concurrence with De Saussure (1916), Barthes (1977) defines denotation as the direct relationship between a sign and its referent in reality. Thus, in Charles Mungoshi’s poem “Winter”, the sign “Pioneer Street” denotes a road, which actually exists in Harare, fringed by pavements and buildings, though it has been renamed Kaguvi Street.

The explicit use of the word “pioneer”, therefore, literary denotes political domination characterised by suffering, dispossession and betrayal, which come to any Zimbabwean’s mind each time it is mentioned. Semiologically the word “pioneer” becomes the sign “pioneer”, whose use as a real street in Harare depicts reality.

Connotation, on the other hand, describes further interaction that exists between signs and their users. According to Barthes (1977), signs have a way of interacting with the feelings, emotions and cultural values of language users, enhancing the creation of mental images more developed than the original referents of the signs.

The sign “Pioneer Street” to a Zimbabwean does not only evoke the mental image of a street that exists in Harare, but it connotes the idea of colonialism, for the first settlers of Rhodesia called themselves the “Pioneer Column”. Connotation is only possible because people who share cultural mores also share inter-subjective reality.

Thus, by simply transmitting signs like “Pioneer Street”, “mzungu” or “Dedan Kimathi”, Mungoshi and Ngugi wa Thiong’o can connote the idea of colonial subjugation. Because writers share experiences with their societies, they are able to decipher meaning from similar situations.

Culture, therefore, plays a pivotal role in connotation as posited by Barthes, which explains why the sign “owl” conjures different mental images in people of different cultures. To Africans in general and Zimbabweans in particular, the sign “owl” is associated with bad omens and witchcraft, and to the Westerners the same sign is associated with good luck and wisdom. Hence, extra meaning can be extracted from signs if they are clearly understood by people who share cultural mores and values.

In his depiction of the demise of cultural values and norms as a result of colonialism, Chenjerai Hove uses the signs “migratory bird” and “bulldozers” in the poems “Lost Bird” and “Red Hills of Home”. Bulldozers are symbolic of destruction; the destruction of African mores and the ‘migratory bird” embodies abundance in the Zimbabwean context, because it is the harbinger of the rainy season to the Shona people.

“But as the bird dragged his breast over the city compressed by smog”, disaster is conjured in the Zimbabwean’s mind.

It is interesting to note, therefore, how symbolism works hand in hand with connotation. A symbol, according to Barthes (1977) is an object that stands for or signifies another. Signs which have symbolic meaning have more than one interpretant.

The sign “Mercedes-Benz”, for example, refers to a car. At the symbolic level, however, it also refers to wealth and power. W.B. Yeats compounds symbolism and connotation in his poem “Church and State”.

The symbols “church” and “state” connote physical and mental oppression.

In semiological terms the analysis of connotation, denotation and symbolism as espoused by Barthes (1977), explains how aspects of literary meaning are interpreted by readers.

This interpretative process integrates literature and communication, for the extraction of meaning can only be possible if people understand, not only the denotative aspects of discourse, but its connotative issues compounded by symbolism, as well.

Literature is also awash with metaphors and metonym which enhances literary criticism.

As posited by Jacobson (1965), metaphors express the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar. According to Jacobson the familiar metaphor is the vehicle, while the unfamiliar idea that it stands for is the tenor. The vehicle and the tenor must share a paradigmatic relationship.

Writers, poets and advertisers express objects and actions vividly and compellingly through metaphors.

In mass media adverts metaphors are used to suggest the analogy that exists between certain products in their paradigmatic kinship. Luxury cars, semi-nude beautiful women or picturesque scenes are used as vehicles meant to express the desirability of cigarettes, soft drinks or alcoholic beverages (the tenors).

Hence, people are persuaded to associate the advertised products with the desirable metaphors to which they are paradigmatically linked. The creation of vivid images in the minds of interlocutors, therefore, incites the deciphering of messages if the vehicle and tenor in the metaphor are clearly understood; thus, benefitting both literature and communication as bodies of knowledge.

 

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