Charles Peirce Signs 'address' us within particular codes. A genre is a semiotic code within which we are 'positioned' as 'ideal readers' through the use of particular 'modes of address'. Modes of address can be defined as the ways in which relations between addresser and addressee are constructed in a text. In order to communicate, a producer of any text must make some assumptions about an intended audience; reflections of such assumptions may be discerned in the text (advertisements offer particularly clear examples of this). In order to make sense of the signs in a text the reader is obliged to adopt a 'subject-position' in relation to it. For instance, to understand an advertisement we would have to adopt the identity of a consumer who desired the advertised product. Richard Johnson 'Narratives or images always imply or construct a position or positions from which they are to be read or viewed' Colin MacCabe '... the reader is encouraged to adopt a position from which everything seems 'obvious'' Louis Althusser '... what is represented in ideology is... not the system of real relations which govern the existence of individuals, but the imaginary relation of these individuals to the real relations in which they live' However, a distinction may be appropriate here between message and code. Whilst resistance at the level of the message is always possible, resistance at the level of the code is generally much more difficult when the code is a dominant one. Class assignment (group work, done orally): Consider the following statements: "... a genre can also be seen as embodying certain values and ideological assumptions and as seeking to establish a particular worldview. Changes in genre conventions may both reflect and help to shape the dominant ideological climate of the time. ... Different genres produce different positionings of the subject which are reflected in their modes of address." (D.Chandler) Can you think of any example of this function of a genre?