Decoding Emblem Semantics

Abstract

This article discusses the development of a digital format which is suitable for storing the results of an analysis of literary works, as part of a larger investigation into the generation of meaning in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century genre of the emblem. As emblems contain texts and images, the format is applied to the analysis of both. The analysis takes a semiotic approach, considering texts as vehicles for signs. The signs are described in an Resource Description Framework (RDF) vocabulary, based on a sign class model (ontology) which is formulated as an RDF Schema (RDFS), linked to a TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) encoded text. The article argues that a digital representation of the results of literary analysis facilitates verification of an interpretation's claims about the discussed text. All interpretation constituents are directly linked to the relevant text and image fragments, and all employed concepts have been defined in the ontology. From any source text fragment, the interpretation is immediately accessible, and can point at the source text fragments on which it is based. Facilitating readers' assessment of scholarly interpretational claims may lead to increased robustness of these interpretations.