Assignments: Batch One: Assignment 19

Illustrate and critically discuss the visual semiotics of hats.

Guidance

For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.

What Key Features Do I Look For?

  • Familiarity with relevant texts
  • Evidence - the stronger the better
  • Argument - coherent and balanced
  • Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories
  • Understanding of relevant concepts
  • Reflexivity - reflections on methodology
  • Examples - insightfully analysed
  • Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here.

Advice for this particular assignment: Don't forget that this is not just about hats, but about the semiotics of hats, so make sure that you make reference to relevant semiotic concepts such as codes and connotations, and show how semiotic approaches can shed light on the subject (you might find commutation tests useful). What are hats for? They clearly have symbolic and connotational values beyond their purely practical functions. One interesting issue is that of how one type of hat is distinguished from another (e.g. a fedora from a trilby). How are particular kinds of hats seen as signifying something about the wearer? What leads to some kinds of hat being seen as suitable for one sex rather than the other? What class connotations do particular kinds of hats generate? Why would some people 'never be seen dead in' a particular kind of hat? How do people learn the codes and connotations of hats? One source of such ideas may be fashion guides (some of which are easily accessible online). To what extent in and what ways do they draw upon their use in contexts such as: a) cultural and subcultural traditions; b) celebrity wearers; and c) popular films and television series? What parts do hats play in people's sense of their own identities? Interviews may offer an effective tool for gathering data on people's ways of framing this issue (don't forget to anonymise informants). Use this consent form: Consent Form for Interviews, Photography and Recording.

This essay needs relevant illustrations to help make points. Remember to include a list labelled either Figures or Image sources after your list of References.

Only some of the books on the suggested reading are explicitly semiotic and you may need to recast their insights within a semiotic framework.

Some suggested reading

Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!


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