A semiotic contextualisation of South African postage stamps and letters received between 1996 and 1999

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to use semiotic and narrative theory to unpack the layered meanings related to postage stamps and handwritten letters and explore their similarities. The theories of Peirce on icon, index and symbol, provide a systematic framework from which to explore the parallel narratives in a personal collection of postage stamps and letters received between 1996 and 1999. Postage stamps and letters are sent as a unit, allowing their public and private narratives to arrive in parallel. Both the practical and theoretical components of this research explore these narratives, treating letters and postage stamps as both personal and impersonal objects of communication. They are archival objects of national and personal history and of an era that is slowly fading. This research does not reinforce the different modes of communication offered by postage stamps and letters, but rather unpacks and compares, from a personal perspective, their many layers of meaning.