Binary Opposition

Today we studied binary opposition which "according to Ferdinand de Saussure, the binary opposition is the 'means by which the units of language have value or meaning; each unit is defined against what it is not' ". . . Terms and concepts are related to positives or negatives, with no apparent latitude for deviation: i.e. Man/Woman, Black/White, Life/Death, Inside/Outside, Presence/Absence, and so on." Citation: Fogarty, Sorcha. "Binary Oppositions". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2005 [http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=122, accessed 31 October 2011.]

We also looked at Joseph Wright of Derby's works here and specifically discussed THIS painting. We had an activity where we discussed specific binary opposites. See the links below this post for directions.