Interpreting the Meanings of the “Sunflower Student Movement” from the View of Roland Barthes’ Semiotics

[[abstract]]筆者從媒體報導及親友互動中，深刻感受到，人們因不同解讀心態而對「太陽花學運」這個標籤有著迴然不同的意義賦予。在這樣的理解脈絡下，本文引用巴特的符號學為理論切入點。 值得注意的是，巴特的符號學作為「結構主義」的一個流派，其並不在意實證地「檢證」太陽花學運現象的因果關聯，而是在意易解性地詮釋「太陽花學運」這一符號的意義結構。就此而言，本文的詮釋理解只能說是一種「自我理解」。 巴特的符號學假定「太陽花學運」是一個被人符碼化的符號，其存有兩個層次的符號意義。第一層次的符號意義為直接意指，第二層次的符號是三種文化意義，包括含蓄意指、迷思及象徵，其可對應於三種不同閱讀心態。 本文依據這三種閱讀心態而做出如下解讀結果：「太陽花學運」的直接意指是：以太陽花為象徵物的學生社會運動。「太陽花學運」的含蓄意指主要是：學生因抗議《服務貿易協議》黑箱作業而採取的民主運動。「太陽花學運」的迷思主要是：學生世代累積個人政治資歷的墊腳石，或是在野黨別有用心的權謀。「太陽花學運」的象徵可表現於隱喻與轉喻兩方面，隱喻主要是：象徵臺灣仍陷入統獨爭議而持續耗轉等；而轉喻主要是：象徵《服務貿易協議》要在立法院通過，還有很長一段路要走等。除此之外，筆者主觀上對「太陽花學運」的意義賦予偏向含蓄意指。[[abstract]]The meanings of “Sunflower Student Movement” (abbrev. SSM) are interpreted disparately due to the different mental attitudes. Therefore, this thesis attempts to conduct an investigation, which uses Barthes’ semiotics as theoretical approach. Generally speaking, Barthes’ semiotics is classified into the so-called “Structuralism”. It pays more attention to the interpreting intelligibility of the meanings of the SSM, rather than its causal relationship. Consequently, the interpretation of the meanings of SSM in this thesis is a hermeneutical self-understanding. From the viewpoint of Barthes’ semiotics, SSM can be regarded as an encoded sign, and it has two meaning-layers. The first meaning-layer is denotation, which indicates the literal meaning of a sign. The second meaning-layer is cultural meaning, which can be further divided into three aspects, namely connotation, myth and symbol (including metaphor and metonymy). It is worth mentioning, that each of the three aspects corresponds to a specific reading attitude. This thesis concludes as follows: Firstly, the denotation of SSM is that SSM is a student movement, which makes use of sunflower as symbol. Secondly, the connotation of SSM is that SSM is a democratic movement, which is initiated by students, in order to protest against the backroom deals of “the Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services”. Thirdly, the myth of SSM is that the younger generations try to speculate in the movement to accumulate its political capital; the opposition party schemes to topple the government. Fourth, the symbol of SSM is conveyed in two types, metaphor and metonymy. The metaphor of SSM indicates that the Cross-Strait relationship remains unimproved; the metonymy of SSM indicates that it is pessimistic for the Legislative Yuan to pass “the Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services” in a short time. To sum up, my personal reading attitude toward SSM is to adopt the connotation.[[note]]碩