The contract
المؤلف:
Bronwen Martin and Felizitas Ringham
المصدر:
Dictionary of Semiotics
الجزء والصفحة:
P11
2025-05-06
497
The contract
The sender motivates the action, communicating the modalities of desire or obligation to the receiver. A contract is established, the receiver becomes a subject and embarks on the quest. The contract is followed by three tests:
1. The qualifying test
The subject must acquire the necessary competence to perform the planned action or mission. The desire or obligation to act is in itself not sufficient. The subject must also possess the ability to act (pouvoir/aire) and/or the knowledge/skills (savoir/aire) to carry it out. For example, if your intention is to shoot somebody, you first need to acquire a gun. The gun functions as your helper providing you with the necessary ability to act. However, you must also know how to shoot, otherwise the gun is useless. The being-able-to-do and the knowing-how-to-do are also known as modalities.
2. The decisive test
This represents the principal event or action for which the subject has been preparing, where the object of the quest is at stake. In adventure stories or newspaper articles, the decisive test frequendy takes the form of a confrontation or conflict between a subject and an anti-subject.
3. The glorifying test
This is the stage at which the outcome of the event is revealed. The decisive test has either succeeded or failed, the subject is acclaimed or punished. In other words, it is the point at which the performance of the subject is interpreted and evaluated by what is known as the sender adjudicator. The sender-adjudicator judges whether the performance is in accordance with the original set of values (ideology or mandate) instituted by the initial sender. To distinguish the two senders we call the first one the mandating sender and the second the sender-adjudicator. These roles are not necessarily played by the same actor or person.
When applying these fundamental narrative models to texts, it is important to be aware of several points:
— Each individual text exploits these schemas in its own way. It is highly significant which stages of the quest are explicit, or manifested in the text and which are implicit. The media, for instance, tend to foreground the stage of performance (decisive test) and the stage of sanction (glorifying test).
— Correlations can be made with the discursive level: Figurative elements that have emerged as dominant isotopies or determining oppositions may, on the narrative level, take the positions of object or subject of a quest.
— Not all stories or quests are completed. A quest may be aborted through the successful intervention of an anti-subject: if you set out to sail around the world and your boat capsizes, your quest is rather abruptly terminated.
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