Translated by Deborah Rotshtein
Make sure that, reading your story, the melancholic move towards laughter, those who laugh begin doing it louder, the simple are not bothered, the discreet become amazed with the invention, the serious do not disregard it, nor the wise stop praising it.
Cervantes: 2004, p. 14
Introduction
In Don Quixote’s prologue, Cervantes announces the purpose of a literary work: being open to different interpretations that allow every reader a personal encounter. We believe that Semiotics offer a theoretical basis to have a creative and open encounter with texts, without drifting away from other disciplines and the objectiveness that the text itself encompasses.
In the first place, we explain the classical and modern conceptions of the sign, namely representation and significance, in order to observe the function of Literature as a sign that withholds both conceptions. In the second place, we analyse the particularities of the literary sign as a creative energy of meaning. In the third place, we study meaning as significance, which is the individual and innovative enjoyment of the reader, who then builds new meaning. Furthermore, we inquire into the potentiality of the literary sign, open and creative, but framed by the “place of the text”, with a “box of tools for analysis” and specific examples. Finally, we will reach some conclusions that allow us to face reading as a singular and objective act.