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Greimas' Biography & Bibliography

Biography

There is no doubt that Algirdas Julien Greimas (Lithuania, 1917 - Paris, 1992) is the most prominent of the French semioticians, along with Roland Barthes. Greimas developed a formal method of analyzing semiotic productions, and narratives in particular.

We are indebted to Greimas for the following concepts, among others: isotopy (the repetition of a single element of meaning), the semiotic square (the elementary structure of signification, built on an opposition), the actantial model (which breaks an action down into six actants), the narrative program (which represents an action as two opposite states in succession), and the semiotics of the natural world (the world is a sign, and as such, is made up of signifiers and signifieds).

Greimas' theory of the generative trajectory of meaning combines several of these concepts into a coherent whole. As meaning takes form, it passes through the following levels: (1) the deep semio-narrative structures (including the semiotic square); (2) the surface semio-narrative structures (where we find devices used to describe actions: the actantial model, the narrative program, and the canonical narrative schema); (3) the discursive structures (including figurative/thematic/axiological analysis and other elements); and (4) manifestation (that is, the phenomenon that is manifested empirically to some degree, such as a text).

Selected Bibliography

In English

GREIMAS, A. J., On Meaning, trans. Frank Collins and Paul Perron, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987 [1970].

GREIMAS, A. J., Maupassant: The Semiotics of Text, trans. Paul Perron, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 1988 [1976].

GREIMAS, A. J., The Social Sciences. A Semiotic View, trans. Frank Collins and Paul Perron, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989 [1976].

GREIMAS, A. J. and J. COURTÉS, Semiotics and Language: An Analytical Dictionary, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1982 [1979].

GREIMAS, A. J., Of Gods and Men: Studies in Lithuanian Mythology, trans. Milda Newman, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992 [1985].

GREIMAS, A. J., Structural Semantics: An Attempt at a Method, trans. Daniele McDowell, Ronald Schleifer and Alan Velie, Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1983 [1966].

GREIMAS, A. J. and J. FONTANILLE, The Semiotics of Passions. From States of Affairs to States of Feelings, trans. Paul Perron and Frank Collins, Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1993 [1991].

In French

GREIMAS, A. J., Du sens, Paris: Seuil, 1970.

GREIMAS, A. J., Maupassant. La sémiotique du texte, Paris: Seuil, 1976.

GREIMAS, A. J., Sémiotique et sciences sociales, Paris: Seuil, 1976.

GREIMAS, A. J. and J. COURTÉS, Sémiotique. Dictionnaire raisonné de la théorie du langage, Paris: Hachette, 1993, [1979].

GREIMAS, A. J. (dir.), Essais de sémiotique poétique, Paris: Larousse, 1982 [1972].

GREIMAS, A. J., Du sens II, Paris: Seuil, 1983.

GREIMAS, A. J., Des Dieux et des hommes. Études de mythologie lithuanienne, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1985.

GREIMAS, A. J. and J. COURTÉS, Sémiotique. Dictionnaire raisonné de la théorie du langage, vol. 2, Paris: Hachette, 1986.

GREIMAS, A. J., Sémantique structurale, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1986 [1966].

GREIMAS, A. J., De l'imperfection, Périgueux, P. Fanlac, 1987.

GREIMAS, A. J. and J. FONTANILLE, Sémiotique des passions. Des états de choses aux états d'âme, Paris: Seuil, 1991.

GREIMAS, A. J., La mode en 1830, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2000.

Greimas' Theories

• The Actantial Model
• The Canonical Narrative Schema
• The Figurative, Thematic, Axiological Analysis
• The Narrative Program
• The Semiotic Square
• The Thymic Analysis
• The Veridictory Square